To continue the fight
by Bloodlover
Summary: What has fate in store for our heroes? Will they succeed in defeating Umbrella? *COMPLETE*
1. The beginning

To continue the fight

By: Bloodlover

(Author´s note: This story takes place after Resident Evil 3 and CODE:Veronica.

Disclaimer: All characters are property of Capcom.)

Chapter 1

**__**

A restaurant in London February 9 1999

Chris looked up from his dinner to look at his sister Claire. She was very silent this night. _She is probably thinking about that Steve…_ He sighed inwardly.

He had tried to comfort her the best he could, but oblivously she had to take care of the rest herself. Just like always. _In the end you´re by yourself…_

Chris wished to God that his sister would never had to become involved into this, hell he wished that none of this mess never happened. He remembered back whan he was with the Air Force that sometimes one of your buddies could get killed in a mission. He remembered talking to the shrinks, all they could do was listening and comforting. But it was only he who could defeat the sorrow and guilt and move on. 

Now he has to watch Claire do the same. She wasn´t a soldier but thanks to Umbrella Incorporte of dickheads she has to become one. 

Which included watching friends die. And by the look of things it seemed like she and Steve had been more than just "friends", or at least that they had felt more for each other.

__

God Claire! I hope that someday you can forgive me. If I had only said to you to stay away from Raccoon instead of just blowing out of town. Some people wouldn´t come to a totally new town to look for their stupid brother. But she did. And from that moment she became involved. She had to kill monsters that once were real people. She even almost got killed…

And he had failed his friends too. Barry he had heard from but Rebecca had disappeared, nobody knew what had become of her. God only knew what had become of Brad Vickers…

And Jill… 

That was maybe one of his biggest failures to protect the ones he loved. 

__

Love… Yes I do love her. But if she´s alive does she still love me?

He had left everybody behind. Jill had stayed because she wanted to investigate Umbrella more. She had even tried to convince Mr. Bastard-Ass Police Chief Brian Irons.

But then there was a leak of the T-Virus in Raccoon City and so it became the city of the dead. To make things even worse the president had the city nuked the day after Claire, a little girl named Sherry and a cop named Leon had gotten out. 

__

That means that Jill, if she didn´t got infected, had to get out of the town before it got nuked. But if she got out shouldn´t I have heard something from her now…? No don´t think like that! God I hope Jill is alive, that she didn´t got infected. That she got out… I hope she is alive. I don´t give a damn if she hates me as long as she is alive. But I hope she can forgive me someday…

"What´s the matter Chris?"

It was Claire. She took a sip on her Cola and looked at him. "You look as if Hell had gotten loose and it was your fault." 

He shook his head. "No just thinking."

She pointed her finger at him just like a very annoying teacher they had had in school. "Keeping things to yourself isn´t good Chris! Wasn´t that exactly what you told me before?"

She was right. As always. Well MOST of the time always. "I was thinking about all the screw-ups I´ve made. The people I have failed…"

She put away the Cola and looked at him just like their mother when she had been alive. "Chris I´m pretty sure that your friends doesn´t blame you."

He tried to smile. "Thank you Claire you´re right."

But he couldn´t get rid of that feeling…

**__**

At a café in Paris February 10 1999

Jill sighed. She had tried for months now to locate Chris but to no prevail. There had been four months since her escape from Raccoon City and she hadn´t find him yet. She really missed him and was worried for him. She knew that he could take care of himself, but as the weeks and now months flew past and no sign of him…

__

NO! He is alive I know it! He has to be…oh please God… 

She felt with her hand his knife wich was always in her pocket on the inside of her longcoat. She had find it in his hide-out and it helped her feel safe in a strange way.

__

That is why I don´t fly nowadays. Wouldn´t make it on the plane with this.

But that wasn´t the only reason. Umbrella had a price on her head. That was what Nicholai had said._ I wonder if it was a mistake to let him get away. Maybe I just should have blasted him right out of the sky._

But on the other hand if she were lucky maybe he thought that she and Carlos had been wiped out by that nuke that destroyed Raccoon City. She felt pain at the memory, even if she knew that there was no rescue for the citiziens of Raccoon City, it felt like a piece of her died in that blast the city had been totally wiped out…

She forced herself not to think of that now but instead she remembered her loneliness and Chris´s destroyed hide-out. The sight of the lone knife on the floor. And what looked like blood… But he HAD to be alive! She rememebered her joy when she finally found his hide-out. She had missed him so much, wanted to be in his arms… After their "adventure" at the mansion they had became so close, they had always been very close but after that incident they had finally taken steps toward a real relationship. 

That was until Chris started acting so strangely, he had only fought by himself, not confided in anyone, not Barry not Rebecca not even her. A short terrible period she has thought that maybe he suspected them to be spies, but then her sensible mind had kicked in. But she had felt so lonely… Then he blew out of town and Barry had sent away his wife and daughters. Rebecca had only disappeared and Brad… Well even if he wasn´t active in their struggle against Umbrella and Police Cheif Irons, he DID help them with information gathering.

__

And then he was killed by Nemesis.

Thinking of Brad and Nemesis was a mistake, that brought more memories of her time in Raccoon City. Carlos, her infection by Nemesis, Nicholai… 

Jill shivered at the memory of the cold soldier of the mercenary unit that Umbrella had sent to Raccoon, the U.B.C.S. The same unit that Carlos had belonged to. Despite her bad mood she smiled a little. Carlos had taken off with Barry Burton, an old friend and former teammate in S.T.A.R.S., he had saved her and Carlos when Nicholai had taken the helicopter they were looking for to escape the doomed city. Barry and Carlos - both had saved her life and she owed them. Carlos wanted to go search some some friends in the U.B.C.S who might help them and Barry wanted to help him find them. They had dropped her off in Madrid. She had left her grenade launcher and some of her other weapons with them. They would have more use for them then she.

__

I bet he can be good for Carlos, teach him a few tricks.

It wasn´t that Carlos was incompetent, but his tendency to run off at some times was a bit annoying… It wasn´t like he was a chicken like poor Brad…

__

Well Brad had a few flaws but he was only human. I KNOW he didn´t deserve to die like that… Nemesis running a tentacle right through his head…. God…

It was near that Carlos had freaked out one time too at the Clock Tower, before she slapped him. After that he looked shocked at her, but he had came to help her in the battle against Nemesis. The battle were she had been infected with the T-Virus…. She had been so close to death but Carlos had brought her the antidote. He also managed to destroy the Nemesis´rocket launcher, and later on he saved her ass from a couple of zombies in the factory. No doubt about it, when shove came to push, Carlos Oliviera was a man you could count on. 

__

I really hope that he can find his friends we need all the help we can get. 

She sighed and stood up, leaving a good tip to the waiter who smiled happily at her, she had to get going. The night before some mysterious guy had pulled her into some backstreet and told her a few things about the Umbrella HQ in Paris. She didn´t know if she could trust him but it was a clue, besides she knew how to take care of herself. And she couldn´t turn down any shots she got. 

That said and done Jill set out, first for her hotelroom to supply herself and then to the big, menacing building in the outskirts of the lively city of Paris. During the day she had entered the building undercover as a journalist writing about Umbrella so she knew the floorplan of the building, some at least. Besides this was only a little sweep, she could hold her own. She only brought her lockpick, the Beretta especially designed for S.T.A.R.S., a First-Aid Spray and a magnum, the very same magnum she had used to blow away the remains of the Nemesis in Raccoon City´s abandoned Umbrella factory, it had became her rabbit´s foot. And Chris´s knife of course. 

When she got to the building she hid away until all the employees went home and the building was closed. But she knew how to take out one of the alarms. She just had to make sure she didn´t screw up so her escape route closed. Security had been tight after some incident a couple of months ago. Someone had broken into the HQ but more than that she didn´t know. She just hoped that he or she had gotten away.

__

This place is spooky. I can just imagine zombies coming at me anytime soon. 

The only sound she heard as she walked through the bleak corridors, was her boots silently clacking against the floor. She checked her magnum that she held in her hand. She hoped that she didn´t had to use it. 

She stopped at the door that had a plate were it stood DATA ROOM on. 

She reached into her pocket and took out her lockpick. The lock was pretty easy to pick, she opened the door and did a quick sweep with her magnum. No one was in there, only a computer and a cupboard were in the room, a typical data/file room.

__

If I´m lucky maybe I can find clues to where Chris is. Or if I´m very lucky evidence to Umbrella´s crimes. But I take what I can get.

She soon managed to hack into the computers stystem. She then chose a link that said ENEMIES. A lot of names came rolling up the screen, her own name among them. She clicked on the link that led to her file. Her picture, full name, birthplace everything on her was there. There was a notice.

****

Extremely dangerous but probably dead together with Carlos Oliviera, a former mercenary in the employ of Umbrella, due to the destruction of Raccoon City. 

She smiled grimly. _"Dangerous"? Hmmm! But I guess that means I´m safe if they think I´m probably dead. But I wonder how Umbrella can know of Carlos switch of sides?_

Well that was a mystery for another time. Her eyes had fell on the name "Chris Redfield". Before she headed to deeper territory she should check this. 

She clicked on the link…

Suddenly a message appeared on the screen. Jill gasped.

****

Access Denied. Warning! Warning! You don´t have the authority to use this file. You will be apprehended!

Jill backed away from the computer, terrified. Had this been at working hours the worst outcome would have been that an angry Umbrella supervisor would come barging in here to chew out a careless employee. But now that the building had closed, the alarm would probably go. _Damn! I was careful. I´m dead…_

As if someone had decided to make her a prophet, an alarm started to sound. Somewhere she thought she heard running. 

She quickly turned off the computer in case they could track her that way. That would at least buy her some time. She looked around the room and saw an airwent that she could probably fit into. She took hold of the shutter, opened it, and climbed in. The shutter fell back behind her. She had to hurry to get to her escape route before it was shut off. 

Her escape route was an emergency exit that led to some stairs and then down to a back door. She knew it had a simple lock, she could open it easily with her lockpick.

__

The problem is that I have to get there before the soldiers seal it off, or begin guarding it. Even if I managed to take all the soldiers with my guns, I would alert the others too.

She crept along the airwent. She wished she had been smaller it would have been a lot easiler. She could hear angry screaming and people running. If she couldn´t do this faster she might get caught. A fate that would be worse than death. The Umbrella creeps would probably use her as a guinea pig. That was what had happened to the poor ones that had walked by mistake into the abondoned factory in Raccoon… 

She put aside the thoughts and continued. 

At last she arrived in a room that seemed to have already been searched. She carefully lifted the shutter and crawled out. The screaming and running seemed to be far away, but she still had to hurry. She took her magnum in a fast grip and opened the door. It was safe. She darted down the corridor. She recognized the area now. Around the corner down another corridor, she was going to make it.

"Going somewhere miss Valentine?"

She stopped and gasped. Right in front of her had Nicholai stepped out, looking as arrogant as ever, cold eyes looking directly at her.

"Nicholai!"

That was all she had time to say before he tackled her. She dropped her magnum and Nicholai shoved it away with his foot.

"Always a pleasure to meet, right Nicholai?" she said acidly as she began to stand up. He backhanded her. 

__

This isn´t good… Soon his buddies will come. I have to get out! 

But now Nicholai pinned her down before she could get up again. He took her Beretta.

"Resistance is futile miss Valentine." He said in his typical cold voice. The one he had used after she had seen him shoot one of his own men who was already being turned into a zombie. 

Jill felt her fear rising and struggled, but she couldn´t get him off.

__

Unless… the knife!

She carefully let her right hand slide into her coat and took out the knife. Nicholai was busy smiling evilly at her that he didn´t notice what was wrong until she whacked him on the head with the butt of the knife. He screamed and she managed to get him off her. She didn´t have the time to take her weapons, she didn´t want to take any chances that could jeopordaize her escape. She ran to the left and there it was, her escape route. Her heart pounded in fear but also with triumph. Now she was at the door, her lockpick already up. 

But suddenly someone grabbed her shoulder, starting to turn her around. Jill gasped she hadn´t heard anyone, but she drew her knife again and this time it wasn´t just to whack the attacker out… 

Her attacker was fast. In just a splitsecond he grabbed her hand holding the knife and squezed. She cried out and dropped the knife. Now she was caught. Her captor´s other hand took a hold of her throat, choking her at the same time as he drew her out in the light. Now she saw who it was. 

It was Wesker.

__

He is DEAD! This isn´t possible this can´t be happening…

That was her last thought before he banged her head into the nearest wall and darkness claimed her. 

Wesker looked down at Jill´s unconsionius form and laughed. She had always been a major pain in the ass. Always so righteous and generally annoying. He had looked forward to feeding her to the Tyrant at the Spencer Mansion, but then Chris had come along and ruined his plans. Remembering his nemesis Wesker frowned. 

"Wesker!"

He turned around. It was that soldier-mercenary from the U.B.C.S Nicholai G-something. Not that Wesker cared so much of the man that he had bothered to learn his name…

"Yes Nicholai I got her."

The soldier pointed his gun at her head. "Good. The job is easier this way."

"No you fool!" exclaimed Wesker. "We have more use for her alive than dead.!"

Nicholai put the gun away, much to Wesker´s relief. They didn´t have the time for an argument here and now. Nicholai looked down at Jill and puched her in the side with his foot.

"As you say Wesker. But how come you know this woman? Have you a history together…?"

Wesker shook his head. "Not THAT way. She was one of my teammates and subordinate when I was with S.T.A.R.S. Thanks to her and Chris Redfield my plans were spoiled and I was forced to… to sell my soul."

He looked down at the floor and suddenly saw something he had forget. The knife that Jill had tried to stab him with… He picked it up and examined it more closely. It looked familiar in a way. Yes now he knew what had sparked that feeling. Ingraved on it was the name "Chris Redfield". Wesker´s smile grew bigger.

"Much more use than I thought…."

****

TO BE CONTINUED!!!!!!!

So what did you think? Stay tuned for chapter 2 to learn what will happen to Jill and what the others are up to!


	2. Prelude to the fight

To continue the fight

To continue the fight

By Bloodlover

__

Here it is chapter 2! Sorry it took a while, but I have been busy with school. I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: Resident Evil and it´s characters belong to Capcom. I´m not making any money from the story. Emily Johnson, Donnie Martin and Richard Colt are characters made up by myself, inspired by the game. Dont steal them.

Chapter 2

**__**

February 10 1999 Umbrella HQ in Paris, France

Jill slowly opened her eyes. Her head was ringing, it ached and she could feel bile rise from her stomach. She moaned and shook her head.

"Good morning Sleeping beauty. Slept well?"

She startled at the voice. It was Wesker, the man who had captured her, the man she thought was dead. She had never seen his dead body but Chris had told her about the traitor´s death, about how he was skewered by the Tyrant…_ How come he is alive then?! No one should have survived that.._ She straighted up. That was when she discovered she was tied up, her hands were at the sides of the chair she sat in. Her feet were tied too, so she could not have kicked him if he came close enough. Wesker was always so careful.

__

So I´m totally at his mercy. This is not good, definately not good.

"Wesker! How did you survive the explosion at the mansion?! Not to mention the fact that you were skewered."

He smiled down at her. But there was nothing warm in that smile, just a cool smile like a predator when it has the prey cornered. Jill held back a shiver.

"Someone saved me Jill, that´s all you need to know. What I want to know now is where Chris is."

"I have no idea."

"You lie Jill, I found this with you." He held up the knife right in front of her face. It took all her willpower not to shiver. She was suddenly reminded by a film she had saw, involving a tied up cop that got his ear cut off…

"I found that in his hideout but he was long gone. If I knew where he is don´t you think I would have been with him?"

Wesker sighed and shook his head. "You disappoint me Jill. I thought you were smarter than that. He could have sent you, but then again… By this time he should know that something had happened to you. If that is the case we just have to wait for him, right?" 

When he didn´t get an answer he sighed again and continued. "But assume that you are telling the truth… I guess you wouldn´t have told me anyway."

She swallowed hard. Wesker knew her answer already so it was no use lying.

"I wouldn´t."

Someone sighed behind her. "You´re right Wesker she isn´t very smart."

It was Nicholai and now he walked to stand beside Wesker, his arms crossed. "Don´t think we don´t have the guts to kill you. So far you haven´t been so much use to us."

Wesker nodded. "You´re right Nicholai. Still I want to give her one last chance. For the last time, Jill where is Chris?"

"I told you before, I don´t know anything about his whereabouts."

Wesker bent over so his face was only a centimetre from hers. "I´m beginning to get tired of this game!" He went behind her and now she saw what he had taken. It was a syringe with some sort of liquid inside. If Jill had been scared before she was terrified now. She thought that she heard Nicholai shout something when Wesker took her arm and plunged the syringe in it, but that was lost in her own scream… 

**__**

February 10 1999 Four Star Hotel London, England

BBRRINGG!!!

Chris sighed. He had just showered so Claire had to take it. She had her mobile on all the time, just in case Leon needed to contact them. That was probably Leon now, Chris couldn´t think of so many people who had their number. He reached for his clothes and got dressed. Now he was fully prepared and ready to take on what was next. He went into the kitchen and started to make a late breakfast, or rather brunch for himself and Claire. He was just about to call her when he overheard the last part of the phone conversiation.

"Okay, right… No it´s not a problem at all don´t worry. Bye!"

__

Huh? That was a very short conversation! Maybe something happened.

He went into Claire´s room and found her sitting on her bed, lost in thought.

"Who was it? Was it Leon?" he asked concerned. It was defitantly bad news from the look on her face. Not to mention the very short conversion…

"Oh yes… It was Leon. He asked us to take a mission to steal the coordinates to the main lab of Umbrella. The REAL Umbrella HQ Chris!"

__

That was really good news! Too good in fact, there´s gotta be a catch…

"And…?" he prodded Claire.

She swallowed hard. "The coordinates is in the Paris lab." 

Chris understood her dilemma. It was at the Paris lab that Claire had been caught and sent to Rockfort Island. A place where she would probably had died a horrible death, if, ironically, Wesker hadn´t attacked the island and she got free. It had been the beginning of a nightmare that hadn´t really ended yet. He had saved her, true, but the nightmares were still there. Steve hadn´t made it out alive either…

"Chris, I won´t lie to you and say that it won´t bother me, or that I won´t be afraid. I promised myself that I would never go back there. But Leon really thinks that we can get a good shot at Umbrella now. I can´t turn away from this one."

He still wasn´t satisfied. "And how do we know that the coordinates are really to their HQ? In fact how did Leon got ahold of this information?"

"He has contacts. One of their sources sent him this message. It was STAR."

Chris relaxed a bit. STAR was one of Leon´s contacts, who had also helped them. 

"I guess STAR is the one whom will also fix guns and supplies right?" When she nodded he continued. "How will we get to Paris? Will Leon or STAR get us there?"

"Leon and I determined a rendevouz where the helicopter will wait for us. It will fly us into Paris and set down near the Umbrella HQ. After that it flies away. After we complete our mission we´ll contact Leon again and he will get us out of there."

"And where will we meet the helicopter? This afternoon?"

She nodded. "We hadn´t decided anything special for today right? But first you have to meet STAR and get weapons…"

Chris felt now very proud of his sister. She had known excatly which questions to ask. _Yep she is turning into a real pro._ Even if the thought was proud it didn´t bring him any joy.

"I guess STAR is waiting for me then. The usual place? Claire nodded and he went to fetch his jacket. "I"ll be back soon Claire. Can you prepare the dinner please? We´ll eat early."

"Chris. He didn´t answer my questions about Sherry. And he sounded so strange…"

Chris frowned. Even if he didn´t know Leon, he sounded like a good guy and he had helped Chris rescue Claire. This didn´t sound good…

__

Try to calm her down. She need to focus on the mission.

He gave her a quick hug and then looked her in the eyes. "Claire, I´m sure they are fine. Maybe he just wasn´t so talkative. Maybe he was worrying about tonight, and so need you. Just trust him Claire. He helped both you and Sherry out of Raccoon and helped me find you."

Claire smiled back at him. "Okay Chris, you´re right."

Chris winked at her and closed the door behind him, then he was gone. Claire sighed and stared down at her hands. They were trembling but she made them stop. She wouldn´t be afraid. She would **never **let herself get captured again, she wouldn´t worry especially not when her brother was with her.

**__**

February 10 1999 Goverment Secret Operations Base somewhere in the U.S.A

Leon Scott Kennedy let out a deep sigh and leaned back in his chair. Another day was soon over, another day working for these strange guys. He was only 21 but he sure was experienced as his superior in Raccoon had been. 

__

On the other hand he didn´t had to go thorugh this. That´s because he´s dead.

He didn´t have a mirror for the moment but had a good guess of how he looked. Ruffled brown hair and blue eyes tired of trying to answer questions to which there were no answers. Tired of only waiting. 

Tired of worrying about Sherry, the girl whom Claire had entrusted him to take care of. He hadn´t seen her for a while. He was afraid that the guys running the Agency might turn her into a soldier, which was enough to make him want to vomit. Death and blood was terrible enough to him and he was a grown up. Children should never, EVER, be allowed to particate in the horrors he had seen. 

__

On the other hand… The guy I spoke to, my boss, didn´t seem like the type that would do such a thing. He seemed more interested in me.

He could hope. Still since Sherry was his responsibility he should be allowed to see her more regulary. He wanted to tell Claire that Sherry was fine and be honest. Claire deserved that.

Another question that bothered him was if he were doing the right thing. The guys at the Agency wasn´t that talkative and they surely had their own motives. Still thanks to them he could do something in the struggle against Umbrella, he would have been a fool if he had turned down the offer.

__

And the doctors are good here, and you get free care…

He absently rubbed the spot where he had been shot months ago. That brought back memories of Ada Wong. How he got wounded trying to save her life… How she had died saving his in return… He didn´t want to remember but the memories came back. Painfully.

__

He had screwed up. He had lost his gun and now Mr X was on him. Maybe if he could feint the monster…

BANG!BANG!

It was Ada! She was shooting at the monster with just a Browning, and despite being wounded. The monster turned towards her with slow, terrible steps like the killers in the movies. But this was a real killer…

Ada!

He wanted her to run but she continued to shoot at the monster, even when it lifted her by the throat when she had to stop to reload, she continued to shoot, to fight. The damage she´d done to the creature must have taken effect, because it threw her at a mechanical thing, it looked like a board of some kind, but it didn´t matter. Ada mattered to Leon. 

Mr X fell into the lava pit, clutching his face. 

He ran to Ada´s side.

She had been run through by the metal. She was mortally injured. She wanted him to leave but he wouldn´t. Finally she said that she loved him and he took her into his arms and kissed her. Kissed her with all the passion and love he had for her, wishing that she didn´t had to die. But she did and he had screamed her name, his heart broken…

But when he had to power up the train that would take them to safety, someone had thrown a rocket launcher to him. It was a rocket that finally killed Mr X, all his other weapons had been useless. In short the woman had saved his life. 

__

She sounded like Ada and looked like Ada too…

But why had she ran away? Why hadn´t she tried to contact him? 

And the biggest question of all, how could she survive such terrible injuries?

Suddenly another thought hit him. Hadn´t that crazy scientist woman, the one who shot him, raved about something called "the Agency"? She claimed that it was the Agency that had sent Ada. Could his employer and Ada´s be the same?

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. _Only questions no answers! It seems like it´s my life nowadays…_

He turned to his computer again, reading a report from a friend of his, Ark. He was going out soon to do a task…

Sherry sat in the window as usual. It wasn´t much to do in this place. She missed Claire, she missed Leon. When they had gotten out of the city she had imagined that they would be free, out in the open… Not confined in a dark, dreary place like this.

__

Claire… She will come back for me. She promised. 

She drew up her legs and hugged them. She felt so small, she hated it! She wanted to go to Leon and go away from this place, go away to find Claire…

The door to her room opened and a woman stepped in. Sherry recognized her somewhat. They had met in Raccoon City. She had had other clothes back then, black tights and pink cut-off dress, but it was the same face, just other clothes. 

The woman closed the door behind her and smiled. "Hello Sherry. Remember me? I took care of something for you when we met last time. Now that I found you I´ll return it to you."

She reached into a pocket in her jacket and took out a pendant.

Even though she knew she couldn´t trust anyone on this place but Leon, she felt relaxed being with this woman. And she had really missed her pendant. The reason to it was because inside it was a picture of her parents… She opened it and saw the picture of her and her family. Even though her parents didn´t spent so much time with her, she knew that they had loved her. Claire had told her about her mother´s death, that her last thoughts had been with her… It was also her mother that had told Claire how to make her better again, she had been so sick.. Sherry had cried and Claire had hugged her and comforted her. Leon had done the same too.

Slowly tears began to roll down her cheeks. The woman reached out to brush her hair in comfort. 

__

She isn´t comforting as Claire or Leon. But she does a good try. She doesn´t even know me after all…

When Sherry felt better and smiled back, the woman cleared her throat.

"Feel better? Good. I just wondered what you would like to eat? What is your favourite food?"

Sherry answered without hesitation. "Pancakes. With ice cream, please." Her mother had told her to always say "please" when she wanted something. The woman seemed to like it.

"Pancakes it´ll be then. I will be back soon."

She turned and started to walk towards the door. Sherry thought this would be a good time to ask a question she had wanted to ask for a long time now. And this woman seemed to be a nice person, despite her somewhat cold appearance.

"Umm.. Can I ask a question?"

The woman turned around to face her. "Yes?"

"Do you know when I may get out of here? Not that I have anything against you, but I would like to have some more fresh air. And where is Leon? Will I see him again some time soon?"

When she had mentioned Leon´s name, the woman got a strange expression on her face. She seemed to hesitate before she answered. 

"Soon, soon Sherry…"

With that she walked out and locked the door behind her. 

**__**

February 10 1999 Road to military base for U.B.C.S, U.S.A

Carlos leaned back in his seat. Nothing was as relaxing as a smoth drive on a deserted road in the middle of nowhere. To his left sat Barry Burton, a former member of S.T.A.R.S. He had been in the same team as Jill Valentine, the woman Carlos had escaped Raccoon City with, as a weapons specialist. Carlos had learned a lot from him the short time they had travelled together. He surely had a lot of knowledge. 

__

I shouldn´t be surprised. If he was in the same team as Jill I don´t expect anything lesser. Jill… I wonder what she is doing now? Why did she had to go searching for this Chris guy by herself? And why didn´t I or Barry go with her?

Or maybe he was jealous? Why else would he trouble himself with questions like these. Jill could take care of herself, she was a proffesional. Was it that she searched for someone named "Chris Redfield" that made him jealous? It was true that he liked to flirt with women and was considered a ladies man, but he had felt very attracted to her when they had fought to stay alive in the doomed city. But on the other hand she hadn´t showed any interest in him. If she had felt anything, she hid it very well. Besides, they hadn´t spent that much time together.

To clear his head he turned to Barry.

"Barry? I just wondered… What do you know about Jill?"

"Do you mean her background and such? Why are you asking me this now?"

"To kill some time. We don´t have anything to read and even if we had, I feel sick when I read while travelling."

Barry chuckled. "You´re right. Okay then… Jill was in the Delta Force and when she began in S.T.A.R.S she got high honours from her former superior. She is also decent with chemistry and how to make bullets from simpler kinds of gunpowder. She plays the piano good too, but when she was in the Alpha team she was officially the machine expert."

Carlos lifted a brow. "So she is sort of Jack-of-all-trades huh?"

Barry laughed. "You could say that! She always cares about her friends and fights only for what she believes in."

Carlos hesitated before ansking the next question. This was a rather sensitive one. "Barry.. Does she have a…does she have a boyfriend?"

Barry didn´t answer right away. "Well… Not an official one. But it looked to me like she and Chris, that´s Chris Redfield the man she is looking for, had something going on. She even had a picture of him on her desk. Now that I think about it… Maybe it was wrong of me to say they weren´t officially together…"

"But why…?"

"Well in the beginning they were dating, hugged all the time, giving each other looks. But after awhile something happened to Chris. He was always on his own, never confiding in anyone. Jill must have been pretty hurt. He also got into a lot of fights. After that he blew out of town after telling us to come after him. I sent my family away and left town too. I talked to Jill before leaving, and she sounded okay. But she looked like her heart had been broken. I decided that I would try to keep in touch, and when the communications with Raccoon were lost I flew a helicopter into town, sending messages over the radio on all channels. That´s when I got in contact with you in that factory. The rest from there you know."

Carlos had kept silent all the time. He seemed to be lost in thought. Barry scowled a little.

"What´s wrong?"

No answer. Barry then put the pieces together.

"Carlos. Are you in love with Jill?"

Carlos didn´t know what to answer. Was he? Or was it just concern for a friend in a crisis situation? Barry deserved an answer though… But what should he tell him?

"Carlos look! Is that the base you were talking about?"

__

Saved! Thank God! But sooner or later I have to answer that question, at least for myself.

"Sí. That´s the place. That´s were the rest of the U.B.C.S will be. From what I heard it´ll be ten totally that want to join our cause. I wish it had been more but it´s all we got."

Barry smiled a little and didn´t repeat his question. Probably because of the more important matters that were ahead of them. Probably.

They drove up to the base´s main gate, which opened before them. Carlos caught a familiar face in the control room. At least he thought it was familiar. 

__

Isn´t that Colt up there? I think so and he probably recognized me.

BOOOM!

The gate closed behind them as Colt, if it was him, went down to greet them. Two other people were already on their way, walking towards them. Three totally. What had happened to the rest? Only three people that wanted to fight with them. That dishearted Carlos deeply.

__

Have so many died? Or have they turned to Umbrella? Our team has a high mortality so probably a lot of people are really dead. And let´s not forget that it might be more traitors. Like that creep Nicholai….

Barry hit the brakes and they stopped. They opened the doors and went to greet their comrades. Carlos knew all of them, at least a little.

The first was Emily Johnson and she was the one that Carlos knew best. They had dated a short time when they first had come to the U.B.C.S. She was a good friend, though she had a sharp tongue. She had been his commander in the first team and was famous for shooting down people verbally who didn´t took her seriously. A real pro. 

The second was Donnie Martin, a sniper that he only knew by reputation. He had bragged that he´d never missed a shot in his carrier. More than that Carlos didn´t know.

And now Richard Colt came. It was really he who had opened the gate for them. Carlos had met him a couple of times, so they knew each other´s faces at least. But Richard was always very reserved. Some thought he was creepy and all kind of rumours floated around him. Since most members of the U.B.C.S had shady backgrounds, some rumours were really frightening. But Carlos didn´t know how much of truth there was in those rumours. In any case they didn´t had the luxory to start an investigation on Richard Colt. Besides Carlos felt like they could trust the man. They had to.

Emily gave him a rough, but friendly hug. "So Oliviera you´re still alive? That´s good news."

Barry extended his hand. "Barry Burton formerly of S.T.A.R.S."

"Emily Johnson, formerly captain of U.B.C.S."

"Donnie Martin, no longer with the U.B.C.S. but still the greatest sniper!"

"Richard Colt, formerly with U.B.C.S. Glad to be at your service."

After they had all introduced themselves, Carlos carefully asked the question he had wanted to ask after seeing how few they were.

"What happened to the rest Emily? Not to sound ungrateful or not liking your company, but I thought it would be ten to join up…"

Emily grimaced. "We got ambushed by Umbrella thugs on our way. It was one of the new guys that betrayed us. Two were killed before we even knew what had happened. I almost died too, but Richard saved me. It was also he who killed the traitor and got us out of the trap.

Richard shrugged. "I couldn´t let the creeps kill us."

Emily continued. "What you see is what you get. The rest were killed. The others have either disappeared or turned to Umbrella´s forces. Maybe if we´re lucky we´ll come across more, but for the moment, this is all we got."

Richard looked more grim. "U.B.C.S, the death squad."

An uncomfortable silence fell over them. Donnie was the first to speak.

"Maybe we should get in to the base´s briefing room, to let you fill us in… I have something interesting to tell you too…"

The group went into the base. It was sturdy and good, but Carlos thought it felt creepy. Yet it would be their home, at least for a while. Emily opened the doors and took the position as the briefing´s leader, and the rest sat down.

"Okay Oliviera, and Burton. Could you tell us everything. Burton could start. What happened at that old Spencer mansion?" 

Barry took a deep breath and started the story with how they were sent out to rescue the Bravo team. How they were attacked by dog monsters and Joseph´s death. How he was blackmailed into helping Wesker, the man who had let his own team be killed and had tried to kill them all. He had wanted to leave that part out, he still felt shame, but decided it was best to play with open cards, to avoid trouble in the future. They had to trust each other completely. He then continued with the story. 

The Bravo team had all been killed except for a young rookie, Rebecca Chambers, who was saved by Chris Redfield. He finished the story with how they had escaped the hellhole, thanks to Brad Vickers, their now dead pilot.

"Well the man made up for his mistakes…" muttered Richard. 

"Unforunaly nobody believed us. The higher-ups in Raccoon City had been bought by Umbrella. All of us headed to Europé, except for Jill Valentine who stayed, that was how she met Carlos, and Rebecca Chambers who disappeared a couple of weeks after that…"

They all fell silent wondering what had happened to Rebecca. Emily broke the silence.

"I guess Carlos should continue now."

"Okay, I was sent to Raccoon City together with many other U.B.C.S. But we were totally wiped out by zombies and other monsters. Nicholai was on Umbrella´s side too. He was a traitor. I saw myself how he killed Tyrell, he shot him… I don´t know for sure but I think he also wounded Mikhail, but I could be wrong. It wouldn´t surprise me though…" Carlos blew out a breath to collect himself. "Mikhail was killed by the Nemesis, a monster sent out to kill every last S.T.A.R.S. member still in the city. It infected Jill with the T-Virus but I managed to find a cure."

That seemed to impress the others but Carlos knew that he couldn´t stop. They had to act as soon as possible. "Regarding Nicholai again…He was to collect data from the victims and give it to Umbrella. He tried to kill both me and Jill Valentine, a woman I met in the city she was with S.T.A.R.S, and he escaped. Barry came to our rescue when he heard our hails by the radio."

Donnie whizzled surprised. "Geez.. You had a hell of luck then."

"Yes. You were lucky that I sent messages right then. I picked you up the right time." 

"So guys what do we do now? We kick Umbrella´s butt for sure!" Colt stood cooly in the corner like some James Bond-type agent. _Proffesional from head to toe. Bet he was born to be with U.B.C.S…_ thought Carlos.

"Hey guys! I have something to tell you too!"

All of them looked at Donnie. He flushed a bit but continued. 

"Before I hooked up with Emily and her crew, some mystic guy contacted me. He said that the Paris lab contained the coordinates to the real Umbrella HQ! I think this would be a real shot for us!"

__

He´s right, but it sounds too good to be true. Donnie´s just like I was once. Before Raccoon…

"Donnie, how do you know that this guy can be trusted? It could have been a spy. Moreover how do you know that the guy wasn´t the one who ordered the attack?"

Donnie seemed to sharank a bit. "I can´t guarantie that. But if he was a spy he could have nailed me right there. It was two weeks after that that I met up with Emily. He could have killed me anytime."

Barry opened his mouth to protest and so did Emily, but Donnie continued. "I know what you guys are going to tell me. That he could have said that to set us up. But if he was the one who ordered the attack, why take the risk to kill me? Why BOTHER to try to kill us if we were going to be killed at their head quarters?!"

Nobody could argue with that. Donnie was right. Richard Colt, who had kept silent up until now opened his mouth.

"I don´t like gambles. I don´t like to act from tips from people I can´t trust. But on the other hand Donnie´s got a point. You have to take chances sometimes."

Emily nodded and so did the others. "You´re right, we have no choice…"

**__**

February 10 1999 Umbrella Head Quarters in Paris France

Nicholai glanced nervously at Wesker. The man was crazy, one of the most uncomfortable persons he had ever known and Nicholai had known many. Some of them had died in Raccoon City. Wesker himself looked down at the pale woman lying on the bench before them. He didn´t have any love for Jill Valentine, but to inject live T-Virus in her had NOT been in their plan. They were going to use her as bait for Chris Redfield, and he sure seemed like a bright guy. He would never fell for the "dead hostage" trick. Not to mention what vengeance he would dish out…

__

I´ll only use the syringe to scare her. I won´t inject it. And I will only use it if all else fails.

That was what Wesker had said. But he had done it nevertheless. After that Jill had shaken and lost conscienceness. She got high fever, but still she was okay. They had taken a blood sample and discovered why she was immune to it. She had anti-bodies, she had gotten infected but got a vaccine.

__

I think I have a good idea where…

The question now was what they were going to do with her. At least for Wesker, he couldn´t make up his mind whetever he was going to use her as guinea pig or stick to the old plan of using her as bait for Chris. Nicholai had tlaked him into using her as bait for Redfield. They would hit two birds with one stone. 

"Well sooner or later she will die in any case." laughed Wesker.

Nicholai shivered.

TO BE CONTINUED!!!!

__

Like I said sorry it took so long and sorry I didn´t show so much of Jill in this chapter, but I wanted to use the others too… And BTW I mentioned Ark here but since I haven´t played Survivor I don´t know so much of him, and therefore I can´t write so much of him, so I stick to what I know.

Hope you liked the story and as always feel free to comment on it, or how I can write better. 

__


	3. The calm before the storm

To continue the fight

To continue the fight

By: Bloodlover

__

Disclaimer: The characters belong to Capcom, except for Emily Johnson, Donnie Martin and Richard Colt. Don´t steal them. Now on with the show!

Chapter 3

**__**

February 10 1999 Outskirts of Umbrella HQ, Paris France

Two figures were moving silently in the shadows. They were Chris Refield and Claire Redfield, and they were about to enter a place of evil and death, namely the official head quarters of Umbrella. The real HQ was somewhere else and to find out where, they had to break into the official one. Claire shivered a bit, remembering the last time she´d been there. 

Last time she got caught. That was not going to happen tonight, she would kill herself before she let that happen…

"You okay?"

It was her brother. He knew what this must be doing to her, yet she knew he admired her courage.

"Yes. I´m fine. How much time have we now?"

"Two hours. Two hours to find the coordinates in a place we don´t know anything about."

He caught her glare.

"Oh, I mean ALMOST anything about."

She smiled. "I remember some things from my last visit here. I didn´t got caught when I first entered the building. I was on my way out when they caught me."

"Sorry for doubting you, dear sister."

They laughed and moved on. Leon had given them two hours to complete their mission. Then they had to be at the rendevouz. Claire continued to brood.

__

Leon sure has resources! I wonder were he got all those contacts…? And why did he continue to avoid my questions about Sherry? Then again he could have been focusing on the mission, and so must I do. I trust Leon, I´m sure there is a reason….

"Claire! Look! There is the backdoor we were told about!"

It was a sturdy iron door ten meters away. Leon had told them that it was unlocked most of the time. The guards went out that way when they had downtime. If the door was locked they had to wait for a guard to come out. 

__

"But you don´t have to wait too long. That´s also why you got two hours to go." Sure Leon. This is nothing. Mission Piece-a-cake…

"Hey! Who are you?! Hold it!"

It was a guard. Behind them. Claire turned around and fired. The bullet hit the guard right in the face and he died quickly. She had killed humans before. Even if she had had no choice, she still hated it. She felt empty.

Suddenly she heard Chris cry out. A second guard had sprung out of nowhere and was now heading for the door. She took aim but missed. Chris was hard on his heels, they couldn´t allow the guard to lock the door behind him. If that happened they were screwed two times over. He managed to catch the door before it locked.

"Hurry up!"

Claire hurried over to him just as he fired again after the guard. But he got away.

"Damn!" swore Chris.

"We really have to work fast now."

Both nodded and started to move.

**__**

February 10 1999 Umbrella HQ Paris, France

"Sir!"

Both Nicholai and Wesker turned as one to face the guard.

"Yes Hunk?" asked Nicholai.

"Chris Redfield and his sister has arrived."

Wesker chuckled. "I knew that Redfield would come sooner or later. Have the others showed up too?"

Hunk shook his head. "Negative sir."

"They will probably come later. Let´s deal with the ones we have." Said Nicholai.

Wesker nodded and turned to Hunk. "Hunk. I want you and Nicholai to give Redfield a warm welcome. Not to rough, I want them alive. Alive to face me." He chuckled again. Nicholai had to control himself to not to shiver. Why had he ever got in league with the monster…?

"Okay. Let´s move out." 

Hunk and Nicholai started to go to the door. Nicholai got one final glance at Wesker who had turned to stare down at Jill. He didn´t envy the woman or her friends._ Better to be the devil´s right hand than in his way…_ He closed the door behind him.

**__**

February 10 1999 Outskirts of Umbrella HQ Paris France

Carlos shivered a little where he went with the rest of the team, though he was sure it was more excitement than cold February weather. They were on a mission wirh a vengeance…

Maybe I get to meet Nicholai… It would be a pleasure, for me at least but not for him.

It wasn´t his style to think thoughts like that, he had never been bloodthirsty or screamed for revenge before. But Nicholai´s treachery and Raccoon City had changed that.

Suddenly Donnie spun around. "Halt! Someone is following us!"

All drew their weapons and pointed at the place at their pursuer´s persumed hiding place.

"Hold your fire!"

It was Barry. He took one step forward. "Identify yourself!"

"It´s me, Rebecca!"

A young, attractive woman stepped into their vision. "Sorry I scared you. I´m Rebecca Chambers and I was formerly of S.T.A.R.S Bravo team. I have done some covert ops in the HQ and I will show you the way in." 

"Covert ops? But for who?" asked Carlos. He thought she looked like she was on their level but they couldn´t take any chances.

"Ummm… Before I left Raccoon Barry and I made up a plan. It was so secret that we promised we wouldn´t tell anyone."

"I have to apologize for not telling you this before at the base." Continued Barry when Richard darted a glance at him "But in Raccoon I guess all of us got somewhat paranoid, we had to plan a defense, but couldn´t risk that Umbrella would find out. If it is any consolation we didn´t even told Jill and Chris about it. Besides if Umbrella had the chance to intorrogate someone…"

"You´re right it sounds really paranoid!" said Donnie a bit angrily. 

"Then again Martin you have never been in this kind of situation before, am I right?" asked Emily acidly and came to Barry´s defense.

"Ah sorry I didn´t thought about that. The situation still feels a bit unreal I guess." Replied Donnie a bit flustered.

"Then you better get used to this game. If you don´t it´s game over for your part." She turned to Barry. "Do you want to debrief her or something?"

Before Barry could answer Rebecca interrupted. "Actually there is something we have to talk about. If you excuse us…?"

Emily nodded. Carlos smirked at her.

"For such a fine lady I excuse you for everything."

Emily rolled her eyes. "Dear, if you´re smart you ignore this guy. He doesn´t seem to even WANT to grow up!"

Rebecca smiled "I´ll keep that in mind." and they went into the woods. Barry cleared his throat. "Okay Rebecca. This is something REALLY serious right?"

She nodded and turned a bit pale. "Yes and it will sound totally crazy. I still can´t believe I saw it… I first thought I was crazy or that my eyes lied to me. But I was inside the HQ pretty long and even if I never saw anything of REAL importance, I managed to even go into the parts of the buildning where normal employees never go to. I was very careful. Barry… I saw… I saw Wesker."

He felt his heart stop. "Are you sure. He is dead Chris told us…"

"I know that! He told me Wesker got killed by Tyrant he got skewered right through his stomach, there is no WAY he could have survived that. But I saw him, heard him like five-six times. I´m never going to forget or forgive that creep. He seems to work with Umbrella, or at least with someone inside Umbrella. A tall whitehaired guy. I never heard his name though…"

"It´s okay Rebecca and I believe you when you said you saw Wesker. But how…?"

In the moonlight Rebecca´s face seemed more pale than it already was. "Somehow he did survive. And that means he must be more dangerous than ever before…." 

**__**

February 10 1999 Inside Umbrella HQ Paris, France

Chris and Claire moved fast. They had had more luck now, they were on their way to the control room where they were supposed to find the coordinates that they needed. They hadn´t encountered any big Umbrella soldier troops, and if they just could find the coordinates fast enough, they should be able to get out.

"There it is! Inside that room! Hopefully the coordinates will really be there." Said Chris quickly but clear. "Claire I want you to cover me, warn me if anyone comes."

Claire nodded and Chris grabbed the handle, tried to open it. It was locked.

"Shit! It´s locked!"

"Wait, I can open simple locks with this lockpick." She answered, showing him a lockpick she had just taken out of her breastpocket on her vest.

Chris raised an eyebrow. "How did you learn THAT art?"

Claire smirked at him. "You don´t want to know. Just watch out for me okay?"

Chris nodded and watched their backs. But suddenly he must have dropped his attention, because a tall, whitehaired soldier shot at them. Before he could warn his sister a shot rang out. Claire screamed and clutched at her wounded arm.

"My arm!"

Chris thought fast. Someone had to stay and watch the door. Claire could use the door as cover while he searched the office…

"Claire, I want you to cover our backs. Use the door as cover, I´m going to search the office. Here, press this against the wound." He handed her a package of mixed green herbs, being thankful that the wound wasn´t too serious or they had to use one of their rare first-aid sprays. "I´ll be back in ten!"

Claire smiled weakly but pointed her gun at the corridor while he darted into the room. Chris felt bad, not only had he dragged his sister into this mess, his sloppiness had gotten her wounded too… _I have to be quick! Let´s see it should be here… somewhere… Yes here it is!_

"I´ve found it Claire! Let´s get out of here!" he said excitedly as he came out of the room.

"You´re not going anywhere."

Both Chris and Claire spun around fast. Both hated the man who had now spoken to them. Ten feet away the corridor from which they had come stood Wesker. Claire took aim at him with hatred in her eyes.

"What is HE doing here?! What happened to Steve?!"

"I wonder the same thing too Claire." Replied Chris sternly. "Wesker what the hell are you doing here? You don´t work for Umbrella anymore. And what happened to Steve? And your facewound seems to have healed. "

Wesker chuckled and grinned. " First things first. And don´t comment on my face. "His face disappeared for a short time but returned fast. "No I don´t work for Umbrella, I´m merely helping some of them. That is the ones who can help me in turn."

Chris snorted with disgust. "It´s so typical of you Wesker. Why am I not surprised? And why are you´re speaking with us now. I thought you hated me."

"I hate you Chris, I hate all who oppose me, but especially you. But you´re not the only person whom I like to see dead."

Chris frowned, puzzled but a little scared. _What does he mean?_ "What are you getting at Wesker?"

"Take a look at this."

Wesker reached inside his jumpsuit, took out something and threw it so it landed right at Chris´s feet. He reached down and picked it up. His heart froze. It was his old knife, the one which he had lost in a battle at his old hideout. What did all of this mean?

"Where did you get this knife?" His gut told him that this was a bad omen, but he couldn´t for his life understand what this meant.

"I took it from your little friend Jill Valentine."

Claire gasped. Chris himself felt dread, fear and hatred rise inside of him. "What have you done to Jill?! Where is she?! Answer me you bastard!"

"Cool down Chris. And don´t call me names I hate that. If you want to know what I have done to Jill you have to come over to the Testing Zone. Here is a map." Wesker tossed over a map, Chris picked it up numbly. "And by the way Chris I´d hurry if I were you… See you soon. For Jill´s sake I hope. And watch your back. Like I said in Antarcia you better don´t counting on having another lucky day."

With that Wesker blurred and flew down the other corridor, leaving the Redfields stunned. Chris just stood there for a moment, then he punched the wall hard. Claire was at a loss what she should do. She knew that Wesker could be lying, but what if he didn´t? They couldn´t just leave Jill, Chris would never forgive himself then. There was only one thing they could do. The RIGHT thing to do. She placed her right hand on her brother´s right shoulder. He pulled himself together. He grabbed her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. His eyes looked tired and defeated.

"Claire, I´m sorry I got you involved in this. I know this is a trap Wesker has set up. But I can´t turn away from this, Jill may die if I do. I won´t put you in danger, so I want you to go to our meeting place and escape with Leon."

"No way Chris!"

"What?"

Claire snorted angrily. "I said no fucking way! I´m going with you." He started to say something but she held up her hand, stopping him. "I know this is a trap, but I also know that you´re going to save this Jill, whom you have talked so much about. And I´m only guessing now, but it looks to me like you two had something going on back in Raccoon. I lost Steve and it nearly crushed me. I don´t even now if he survived or if he is alive. If Jill dies then I know you will be crushed. Since I love you , you´re my brother after all, there is no way I´m letting you experience that. Besides since this is a trap you´re going to need someone watching your back and that´s my job."

"Thank you Claire. I just hope she´s still alive…"

Claire punched him lightly. "Don´t even THINK that way! Wesker needs her alive. There is still time!" They looked at the map. "I think it´s down that corridor, let´s go!"

They ran down the corridor, grimly determined to save Jill…

**__**

February 10 1999 U.S Goverment battle helicopter

Leon heard the radio beep and picked it up. _Probably Claire or her brother, but they still have plenty of time left hope nothing has happened…_ "Kennedy here. Over."

"Leon you are there, good this is Claire. We have the coordinates, but we encountered several soldiers, it looks like they knew we were coming. It must have been a trap! Over."

Dread filled Leon but he forced his voice to be strong and calm like he learned while training to be a cop. "I heard that Claire. Get over to the meeting place…"

"There is more. We encountered Wesker, an old enemy. He says he got someone named Jill Valentine, someone my brother worked with in Raccoon City. We are going in to save her. Over."

Leon cursed silently. His team were moving in a surprise attack and he was forbidden to talk about it. He had to get them to withdraw. "Claire, listen. I want you two to withdraw…"

Claire responded angrily. "What?! And leave Jill to Wesker´s mercy?! No way! Just wait for us! Over and out!"

"Wait Claire!" But it was too late, she had already hung up. Leon cursed again._ Damn her! Why doesn´t she EVER listens to what I tell her?! Everyone always ignore what I say. Well I hope my men will listen to and follow my orders, for all our sakes._ Leon looked around, watching his team getting ready in the chopper. They were all professionals, they were the best according to his boss. _For our sakes they better be. Or we will all be lost…_

**__**

February 10 1999 Outskirts of Umbrella HQ Paris, France

"There is something wrong." said Rebecca. The others stopped.

"What is it? Did something happen?" Donnie sounded a bit worried. He hadn´t been himself since Emily´s scolding. He looked more serious and more alert. Carlos thought it was good. That meant he finally knew what odds they had, what they were up against, and therefore had his chances at survival risen.

"Didn´t you hear that? It sounded like gunfire or mobilization. We better near with caution."

__

What could this meen? A trap, were our suspictions right? If it is a trap, who has got caught? We can´t ignore this but it seems our chances have decreased.

"Move out, but slowly." hissed Emily grimly and the others followed. 

**__**

February 10 1999 Umbrella HQ Paris, France

Chris and Claire walked silently down the corridor. They had finally met their destination, the Testing Zone, they were also going into a trap. They had to be very cautionous. 

Claire moved to the door and looked at Chris. He nodded and she opened it. The door went up almost without a sound. Chris went in first and Claire followed, both had their weapons drawn. 

The room itself was small and looked like a controlroom. A controltable was to their right with a door next to it. To their left were a shelf with papers on it. Wesker stood in the middle of the room with his arms crossed, he greeted them with a smile. 

"Welcome Chris. And you too Claire."

Both Redfields spoke at the same time. "Where is she?" asked Chris, eyes flaming.

"Where is he? Did he survive?" asked Claire with a similar glare in her eyes. 

Wesker smirked. "Regarding Steve I don´t know for sure at this time. But you…" He shifted his eyes to Chris whom were about to explode. "You asked for Jill and I´ll give you Jill. Here she is. Look through the window to your right.

They did and saw the Testing Zone, it looked like some kind of footballplane. At the bottom they saw the same whitehaired soldier, who had ambushed them before, drag a half unconscious Jill like she was some kind of garbage. Chris´s hatred rose with high speed to see someone treat Jill that way. When he saw that she was tied up, her hands before her, he was pushed to the limit. He pointed his gun at Wesker. "What did you do to her you monster?!" 

Wesker waved his hand. "Put that gun away Chris. Or…." He didn´t need to finish the line, they understood the threat. Chris disarmed and motioned to Claire to do the same. She obeyed, but her glare never left Wesker.

"Okay Wesker, I´ve done what you said. Now let Jill and my sister go."

"Chris, Chris if it all was so simple." The whitehaired soldier had quickly left the area and a door slid down behind him. "In fact I have planned a little game for you. If you push this button" he motioned at a little red one "this door will open and you can get down there to save Jill." He gestured to the door to his left. He continued. "But you better hurry because a pack of hungry Hunters are on their way to be fed. Guess who is the dinner? And she cannot fight for herself…" 

Claire couldn´t control herself any more. "I won´t let you hurt my brother or Jill!" She dove and caught her gun. Before anyone could react she fired a shot at Wesker. He dodged with terrifying ease and escaped through a door behind him. Claire swore.

"Don´t worry Claire, it´ll all be fine." Chris now seemed deadly calm, like a profesional soldier. He spoke fast but clearly. "I´m going to save Jill. Claire I want you to search this shelf, try to find a map so we can find another escape route. Since this was obiviously a set-up our old one must be guarded by now and no longer safe. I´ll be back soon." He flashed a smile at her. "You know I always keep my promises." He pushed the button and the door opened. Chris ran through it and disappeared down the decending stairs Claire could see through the door. The door closed behind him and she wished him luck while going to the shelf.

****

To be continued!!!!

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Authour´s notes: I hope the tension is high now! Will Chris save Jill? Will they all survive this big battle that are undoubtly around the corner? See for yourself in the next part!

Oh and what do you think of Emily and her team? I will try to flesh them out some more in the next part, but give me your opinions please.


	4. Battle time!

To continue the fight

To continue the fight

By: Bloodlover

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Disclaimer: I don´t own any of the Capcom characters but Emily Johnson, Richard Colt, Donnie Martin and Dan Hawkins are mine inspired by the game. Don´t steal them. Hope you´ll enjoy this part! 

Part 4

**__**

February 10 1999 Battle helicopter 

"Kennedy! We´re almost there! 10 minutes or so!"

"Good! I want you all to make a final check on your equipment. This is a surprise attack, when we get there a surprise strike will be launched. You don´t have any time to make changes at that time."

All the other soldiers saluted him. _Well so far so good. We have trained together and gotten close to each other but this will be our first mission. Not that we are inexperienced but it´s always the risk that something goes wrong._ Leon frowned a bit. Being a leader was a great responsibility but it was dangerous to brood too much. He had a bigger problem now, thanks to Claire and her brother. _Damn it I understand them! But now they might get caught in the fire, I don´t know for sure if I can bail them out of there now. On the other hand I can´t abandon them. I sent them out so I´m still responsible for them even though they disobeyed my orders. _

He thought about it some more. _Maybe if I can lead my men into that mess, secure our point and let my second-in-command, Dan, handle it for awhile. I could make a quick search, get them out and then return to my men. Yes that would be perfect!_

Satisfied with this temporary solution, Leon started to check his own equipment. He had three first-aid sprays, one loaded magnum and five clips, a shotgun slung over his back with lots of ammo and lastly he had a sidearm with lots of ammo. All the ammo were in his sidepack together with the first-aid sprays. The others had the same equipment but he also had a walkietalkie so he could speak with his second-in-command. They were wellgeared, hopefully they would come through this one. _Or else…_

**__**

February 10 1999 Testing Zone, Umbrella HQ 

Chris finally reached the end of the corridor. He slammed the door open and he arrived in the Testing Zone. The room was a bleak and grey one, the air felt chilly. He thought he could smell blood. At the end of the room there was a big iron gate. But it was the person lying in the middle of the room whom he had set his eyes on. Jill. She lay where that whitehaired bastard had dropped her, right in the open. She groaned and moved slowly, her face turned against him. Her eyes seemed to be unfocused.

__

God… Have they drugged her?! They will pay for this…

"Jill!"

He started to run towards her but stopped when suddenly screams filled the air. He knew those screams painfully well. It was the screams of Hunters. A gate opened and they welled out from it, like an enormous flood of monsters. Which they were. _ Manmade monsters. I have to protect Jill!_

Chris drew his shotgun, it was the best weapon against many Hunters, and pulled the trigger. The first Hunters fell screaming to the ground, but the next ones jumped over them and continued the attack._ They are too many! But I have to defeat them._

Their green hides shone faintly in the strange light. Chris ran towards the next flood of monsters, being thankful that he brought much ammo with him. He had to keep the Hunters away from Jill at all costs. When there was a halt in the flood of monsters, he would try to get Jill to the door that the whitehaired soldier had used to get out. Or the other that led up to Claire. There was a strong possibility that Wesker had locked both doors but he had to focus to do something to get them all out. 

__

If I just could close that damn gate! That would give us much time. If I could wake Jill up.. She might have lockpicks…She could pick the locks. So if I can close the gate, kill the remaining monsters and wake up Jill, that is a good plan.

The problem with it was that he didn´t know how to close the damn gate. There was no switch visable. Maybe if he could come closer to the gate he might discover some means to close it. Hopefully. 

He could just pray…

**__**

February 10 1999 Outskirts of Umbrella HQ

"There are the commotion! There is another team fighting the Umbrella soldiers. What should we do?" asked Donnie.

Emily bit her lip but didn´t hesitate long. "We´re going in. We have to help that team, and together we have a better chance at survival. Besides if we could take out this HQ do you understand what this could mean?"

Carlos smiled. "The beginning of the end. For Umbrella!"

"Right! Okay I take the point together with Carlos and Richard. Donnie and Barry follow right behind and Rebecca you´re last. Go in strong and hard, we´ll only get one chance."

"Yes ma´am!" said all as one. 

They moved fast but silent towards the commotion. 

**__**

February 10 1999 Testing Zone Umbrella HQ

Claire had felt despair before, in Raccoon, Rockfort and Antarctica. She was quite familar with that feeling. It filled her now. 

She had found an escape route but she couldn´t get her brother and Jill out. And things looked bad for them now. Chris was almost out of ammo and he had gotten hurt a couple of times. The more advanced Hunters had came, she knew some of them from Antarctica. And on top of it all she couldn´t get them out. She had tried to open the door with the red button but it wouldn´t open. She was going to have to watch them die. 

__

Forgive me Chris…. I don´t know what to do! If only I knew this controlboard better but what if I make things worse? Then again it can´t become much worse, can it?

She could no longer hold back her tears. Suddenly the door flew open. Her reflexes responded fast and she aimed at the person who stood at the door.

"Hold your fire Claire, it´s me!"

It was Leon. 

"Leon!"

He went inside. "Where´s your brother?" She pointed to the glass window and he looked down. "Oh this is not good! We have to get them out of there!"

"I´ve tried but I can´t get the door opened!"

"Have you tried to close the gate for the Hunters?"

__

God how stupid can I get?! Why didn´t I thought about that before?! It´s the obvious soloution!

"No. But which button can it be?"

They both looked down at the controlboard, eyes searching rapidly. "It must be this one. It´s labeled `Gate Control´." Said Leon and pushed it. They both turned thier eyes down to the Testing Zone, holding thier breaths. The gate closed with a loud TWONK.

"It was the right one!" exclaimed Claire in triumph.

"Let´s just hope Chris can take care of the rest." replied Leon.

Chris felt hope returning. The gate had closed and he saw Claire staring down at him and Jill, Leon was there too. He must have come to help them. It was probably them who had closed the gate and it meant that he had to finish the job. He looked at Jill. _I have to succeed for Jill´s sake too._ There was five Hunters left. They seemed to be stunned by the lack of reinforcements. Chris considered his options fast. They couldn´t get out of here so he had to kill the Hunters first. The shotgun was out of ammo and he only had a couple of magnum rounds left. He had a Glock with lots of ammo, but was it enough to finish off five Hunters? And who knew what else lay behind that..?

Suddenly he saw something near the gate which the Hunters had came from, something he hadn´t noticed before. It looked like a bomb. One shot at it and it would surely take out at least some of the Hunters. He would use the Glock, he didn´t want to waste a magnum bullet when a bullet from the pistol would produce the same results. He put the magnum back in the holster and pulled out the Glock. Two Hunters began running towards him. He quickly took aim and fired.

BOOM!!!

The blast managed to kill four Hunters instantly and wounding the last one. He ran to it and aimed directly at the head. It only took a couple of bullets to kill it. _I did it!_ Against all odds…

"Chris…"

It was Jill and he ran to her. She seemed to be fully conscious now. He knelt by her and took out his knife. With a single, strong cut he cut off the ropes holding her hands. She threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly, whispering his name. He hugged her back, stroking her short, soft hair with one hand, like he never wanted to let go again. Which was true.

CLICK!

His thoughts was interrupted by a sharp sound, he turned his head to see what it was. It was the door which had been unlocked. 

"Sorry to interrupt you two but we have to get out of here."

Chris looked up and saw it was Leon who sounded serious but despite the big distance Chris could see a little smile playing on the other´s lips.

"The door seems to have been unlocked. I guess it was some kind of mechanism, Claire and I didn´t do anything… You can get out there, according to the map Claire found. I take care of her, don´t worry! See you outside!" 

Chris nodded and carefully helped Jill up and they ran to the door. It opened and they disappeared from sight after the door shut behind them.

Up in the controlroom Claire thanked Leon and apologizied for snapping at him earlier.

"It´s okay Claire and we made it all of us. But we have to get back to the others."

"I have found an escape route."

"No. That´s the way I used to get here, and it is surely unsafe now, so we have to get out another way. Can I see the map again?"

Claire showed him and soon they saw a corridor that seemed to lead out. Leon was sure none of Umbrella´s soldiers have thout to guard it yet. _I hope…_ Then again what had they to lose? He told Claire to stay behind him and ran out.

What none of them unfortunately never saw was a very good hidden camera.

**__**

February 10 1999 Outskirts of Umbrella HQ, Paris France

Two very distraught soldiers took tempoary solace by hiding behind a crate. Since they were fighting in some sort of cargo field, there was a lot of hiding places. It did manage to hide and protect the govermentoperatives, but some of the crates had been knocked down and soon there would be no place to hide. On top of that their leader was missing.

"This is no good! Where the hell did Kennedy go?!" exclaimed the first soldier, close to panic. The other one and Leon´s second in command, Dan Hawkins, wondered the same thing. 

"I don´t know, but I know he wouldn´t go unless it was absolutely necessary! The last time I heard from him he said he was on his way."

"Yes but unfortunately your walkie-talkie was shot to shit…"

Dan grit his teeth. It hadn´t been his fault yet he felt responsible for the mess that was quickly growing. " Keep fighting!" was all he could think of to say.

"Yes sir!"

Suddenly there was someone else shooting at the Umbrella soldiers. Dan saw a small glimpse of light which soon disappeared. _That looked like a sniper rifle! And the shooter might have friends… Actually it´s more or less obvious, a lone sniper, even a good one, wouldn´t have a chance against such terrible odds! This is the thing I´ve been waiting for._ Except for Leon´s return but Dan Hawkins was a man who were thankful for the things he could get.

"MOVE FORWARD!" he shouted to raise the men´s fighting edge back. The others followed his lead. 

A couple of Umbrella´s soldiers seemed to stop in their tracks. That was a big mistake, since the ones who stopped became very thankful targets for the new attackers. Two fell instantly and seven right after that. Now the roles had been reversed, it was the Umbrella soldiers who fell back and the goverment operatives moved forward and gaining ground.

__

Don´t get too cocky. You could lose it as fast as you got it. Just use this opportunity. Dan could now see the newcomers that came right out of the dark. Round the HQ grew a lot of forests so it was a very good ambushing spot. If the guards that had the duty of patrolling the forests hadn´t been so occupied, it would have been another story…

First out was a South American man wielding an assualt rifle. Together with him was a tall, dark man with a gun, it looked like a Beretta but Dan couldn´t be sure, and at his right side was a slender woman with a Colt Python that she soon had to reload. _She has to be an expert, she has already reloaded it! _Thought Dan with admiration. Right after them came a big, burly man who also had a Colt Python and he seemed to be as good with it as the woman. At his side ran a young man with two pistols and what looked like a sniper rifle slung on his back. _It was probably he who was the sniper…_Last came a young woman, she carried a Beretta, but although she seemed to know how to handle the gun it didn´t look like she was someone who used it that much.

The bullets continued to fly and no reinforcements for the Umbrella troops seemed to come. After a while, some of the soldiers dropped their weapons and ran. Dan considered for a moment to shoot them, but descided against it. Shooting fleeing men had always turned his stomach. _No wonder some call me "Soft-balls-Dan", but shooting someone in the back or someone who doesn´t fight back… No way! Unlike a couple of my collegues, I have morals._

No one was shooting at them at the moment, and it looke like they were safe. _If there haven´t been reinforcements now there isn´t going to be any. No point._ But just to be on the safe side he ordered a couple of his men to check on the row of crates that the Umbrella soldiers had shoved together as a cover to protect themselves. The two first pushed a crate away while the others covered them, but there was no one there. That meat the rest had escaped, only the dead ones remained. Somehow they managed to bring their wounded with them, they must have been really fast."That´s good, but keep your eyes open! And begin to tend to the wounded!"

"I help too!" shouted the young woman from the new team and joined his men. The rest of her team began to walk towards him, they probably assumed he was their leader. _Speaking of him… He should be back. I hope so. It would be better for both parts if Leon himself could meet these guys._

"I´m back! Sorry to have kept you waiting, but I have been busy! Good work men!"

Dan and the rest turned their heads at the speaker. And there was Leon, and walking next to him was a young woman holding a gun, her ponytail bobbing behind her. She seemed to recognize the burly, big man because she shouted at him, calling him "Barry" and he waved back. 

__

And now I can step back and watch. 

Another thing that Dan Hawkins was famous for was his premonitions and this time he felt that the newcomers would be of VERY big importance….

__

To be continued!!!!!

__

Hope you liked the story! Like I said I´m not really good at action scenes but I tried to capture the tension of the battle in this chapter. So what´ll happen next? Will Leon join forces with the others? And what will happen to Chris and Jill, will they get out or is their escape route really safe…? Stay tuned!

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	5. Confrontations

To continue the fight

To continue the fight

By: Bloodlover

__

Disclaimer: I don´t own any of the Capcom characters but Emily Johnson, Richard Colt, Donnie Martin and Dan Hawkins, etc. are mine inspired by the game. Don´t steal them. Hope you like this part! (Sorry about the delay!)

Part 5

**__**

February 10 1999 Testing Zone, Umbrella HQ

Chris and Jill walked down the corridor. It was cold and bleak like the Testing Zone itself, but lacked the scent of blood and death. But it gave Chris a feeling of foreboding. _Hope we don´t run into that whitehaired guy… Then again, after seeing how he treated Jill I would like to have a "talk" with him._ He looked down at her. She was conscious but still she seemed to have hard to focus. She could walk but Chris felt that he wanted to steady her just to be on the safe side. They hadn´t spoke the whole time, they were both alert, listening to make sure they weren´t ambushed by Mr Whitehair or some other monster, this was Umbrella HQ after all.

Finally they came to some sort of lift that appeared to go down. _Down to the exit hopefully…_

"Jill how are you feeling?"

She smiled at him. "I feel better for each second. Let´s keep going."

Jill walked up to the lift and waved at him. "What´s wrong Chris? Think it´s a trap?"

He frowned but walked to her. "No, but I wonder how safe the lift is. I don´t like it when there is only one way."

She inspected the engine. "It seems to be in working order, I think we can use it. In any case we don´t have so many other options to consider."

Chris took a deep breath. "Okay let´s go!" He pushed the start button and the lift came to life and started to slowly decend. Jill sat down. "So far so good."

Chris walked to her and sat down beside her. He wanted to talk to her now that they were in relative safety. "Jill…" He started. She turned her head towards him. "Yes?"

He wanted to hear what she had gone through and what Wesker had done to her, but didn´t know where he would start. "What happened to you?" He said it so she would understand the multifaceted question.

She closed her eyes for a moment then opened them. "First I escaped from Raccoon City four months ago and I started to search for you directly after that. Barry saved me from the nuke that destroyed Raccoon City, saved me and Carlos actually. Carlos is a mercenary whom I met in Raccoon, he was working for the U.B.C.S, Umbrella Countermeasure force." When Chris startled she calmed him down. "They were not really involved with Umbrella, they were used as guinea pigs just like our unit. He saved my life too. Except for the monsters I encountered, zombies and Hunters for example, there was something called the Nemesis. It was like a smarter version of the Tyrant, it could use a rocket launcer. It managed to infect me with the T-virus." She had to calm Chris again. "Carlos managed to find me an antidote. After that the Nemesis attacked again and we were seperated. We both ended up in an abondened factory that Umbrella had. I almost got shot by Nicholai and he got to the helicopter before I could. I spent a lot of time searching for the card key that would open the lock, but I was locked in a room and Nemesis attacked again. I managed to defeat it and found the card key. But it was already too late, Nicholai had found the copter, he teased me before taking off. Then Carlos caught up with me, again because I met him in the factory´s sewer, he saved me from a couple of zombies…" She laughed, a short, dry laugh. "Sorry, I´m not really good at recaping this story…" 

"It´s okay. Take it slowly." Said Chris reassuring. He knew Jill could recap a mission but she still suffered from the drug she had been exposed to . _Whatever it is. I´m sure she´ll come to it soon…_

"Okay. We debated over what to do and suddenly the radio came to life. The one who called knew my name and we heard he was with S.T.A.R.S. That someone was Barry but it was so much static I didn´t recognize the voice. After that contact was lost. We descided that I would run to the pad and try to signal the helicopter while Carlos continued to get into contact. I finally ended up in some computerroom, where a battle clearly had been fought, a battle betweeen Tyrants and a military unit. Prior to that I found a picture of something called the Rail Gun or Paralysous sword that would be used to take the G-virus from Umbrella. I think the unit that died in that battle was from the U.S goverment. I had almost reached the door when the Nemesis attacked once again. I didn´t kill him in the waste disposal room. I managed to power up the Rail Gun and it blew the Nemesis to pieces. I then used the lift to get down to the pad but I couldn´t found a flare. Luckily Carlos had found one in the controlroom and Barry came and rescued us."

Jill took a breath and continued. "Carlos wanted to find his other friends in the U.B.C.S and Barry followed to help him. I went after you. I found a destroyed hideout…. There was blood on the floor and I found your knife. I guess Umbrella sent something after you or someone."

Chris nodded. "That was a really hard battle, I almost lost."

"I´m glad you survived." She rested her head on his shoulder and continued.

"After that the trail got cold, and I just searched blindly. Until I got a tip from a strange guy about Umbrella tracking it´s enemies. I broke into the HQ a couple of days ago and logged into a computer. But somehow I triggered some kind of alarm. I managed to stay clear of the soldiers and I even got away from Nicholai, that was the soldier with white hair, you know?"

Chris nodded grimly. "I have seen him."

"He pinned me down but I whacked him in the head with your knife that I took from your hideout. Then I kicked him and ran away."

Chris smiled a little at that and Jill did too, but the smile faded quickly. "I had almost reached my escape route when someone snuck up on me. I felt a hand on my shoulder and it started to turn me around. I freaked out a little because I didn´t hear anyone, I tried to stab the attacker this time. But before I could do that he grabbed my hand and squezzed it so I was forced to drop the knife. Then he took a grip around my throat and I saw it was Wesker. After that he banged my head against the wall and I was knocked out. The next thing I remember was that I was tied to a chair in a cold room. Wesker and Nicholai were there. Wesker started to question me about your whereabouts…"

She stopped and Chris held her tighter, hating Wesker more and more each second. 

"I said I didn´t know where you were and he took out a syringe… He plunged it in my arm, it contained T-virus I could feel the battle between the virus and my antibodies. After that I blacked out. The next thing I remember is that Nicholai is dragging me into a large, cold room and leaves me there. And the rest… Well you know the rest."

Chris released his embrace somewhat but still held her tight. "Jill… During these last months I have gone through a lot. But you… I wish I´ve never had left you in that town."

Jill looked up at him, no accustion in her bright eyes. "Chris. DON´T blame yourself. We did what we had to do and I agreed, remember?"

"Agreed. But did they drug you? It looked like it."

"No. I..I don´t think so. But it might have been something of a side effect, triggered by the battle between the virus and my antibodies. I think Becky told me and a couple of other S.T.A.R.S about it at one time…" 

Suddenly the elevator stopped and they both tensed. "Why does this always happen to those things?" growled Chris and stood up, drawing his magnum. "How´s the engine?"

Jill inspected it. "Strange… I can´t see any damage. Then again it´s probably old and…."

"JILL! LOOK OUT!" Chris threw himself at Jill and they both barely escaped the vicious creature that came out of the darkness. Like all Umbrella creatures it looked like a freak, it had a resemblance to a big bird but it´s head looked like a frog. _Or one of those Bandersnatch-things I encountered at Rockfort and Antartica. Wesker threw me into a container with one of those freaks inside. _

"Jill, here´s my Glock." He gave it to her while they still croached. 

"Thank you. But where did that thing go?" 

As if to answer her question something big slammed into the elevator, knocking them off their feet. "Damn it! If it continues this there´s no need for it to kill us, if this elevator crasches we´ll go down with it."

"Maybe we could climb down? But in that case we have to take out the monster or it will swipe at us while we´re climing down. We have to take it out whatever we´ll do."

"Then let´s do it! I try to draw it out. When it comes I´ll get clear and we both fire at it. Got it?"

"Got it. Be careful."

"Always.You too."

Jill watched as Chris carefully stood up. The creature swooped down on them and Chris dropped, firing at the monster at the same time. Jill started to shoot too. The thing was surprised and it fell to the floor. The impact almost knocked them down but they stood their ground and continued to shoot at it. At last it twitched and laid still.

Jill shivered.

"Hey Jill! I wonder why Umbrella loves these things so much. I mean they aren´t really pretty to look at. And the experiments always go wrong."

"You´re right."

The two started laughing, but it faded quickly. 

"Jill, can you fix this elevator? Or do we have to climb down?"

She inspected the engine but shook her head. "Sorry but no. The monster totally ruined the engine during our fight. We have no other choice but to climb down the shaft. It´s not safe, who knows what else is down here? But I can´t see any other options, no one knows we´re here and we can´t wait for help."

Chris sighed. "Then let´s go. I´ll go first. If something comes we have to slide down the rope."

Jill knew what "slide" meant. It meant they practically had to let go of the rope and get down as soon as quickly. It was very dangerous but so was fighting a flying monster when you had to hold a rope at the same time. Out of the two, this was the best soloution. 

Chris and Jill holstered their guns and carefully began to descend into the unknown darkness.

**__**

Outside

Leon had now came up to them, Claire at his side. He saluted Dan and took command.

"Sorry I missed the party, but i had to drop out for awhile. Who are you?"

Barry hid his scowl. _Very straightforward, are we?_ "We are former S.T.A.R.S and U.B.C.S and we are fighting Umbrella. I assume we are on the same side.?"

Claire spoke up, trying to ease the tension. "Barry you can trust these guys, I personally guarantee it."

Barry looked like he couldn´t believe his eyes. "Is it Claire Redfield?! You sure has grown a lot!" He enfolded her in a big bear hug."

"Ugh! Yes it´s me. This is Leon Kennedy and it was he who helped me out of Raccoon City when I came searching for my brother Chris. Whom I found here by the way."

"Chris is here too?!"

"Talk about reunion." Said Emily with just a little sarcasm.

"Yes and he found his girlfriend Jill here too." At that one of the men, the guy with the assualt rifle, (who looked like a fashion model to Claire) widened his eyes.

"Is Jill here too?" he asked with chock.

"Yes, but we had to save her from Wesker The Creep."

Barry growled. "Wesker?! Is he alive?! Where is he in that case, I´m going to have a little talk with him!"

Claire knew from Chris´s stories that Wesker had threatend Barry´s family. "Yes he´s alive, somehow. But he got away."

"Next time he won´t."

"Temper, temper Burton." Said Emily trying to calm Barry down. "But where are Chris and Jill now?"

"Wesker trapped them in a test room but they escaped. I hope they are alright."

"I´m sure they are. When me and Becky here was in the S.T.A.R.S those two were among the best. If they could survive the mansion, Rockfort and Raccoon City, they will get out." said Barry comforting. Claire relaxed somewhat.

Leon cleared his throat. "I´m sorry to break this reunion but we have to work fast." He turned to Claire. "I forgot to ask you before so I´m asking you now. Did you and your brother find the coordinates?"

"Yes, I have them."

"Can you give them to me, please?"

Claire reached into her jacket and found the coordinates. She gave them to Leon.

"Thanks." He took out paper and a pen and began to write down the coordinates. He gave the coordinates back to Claire and kept the copy. "I have to get my men back. We´ll contact you later."

"But…"

"No buts Claire, I don´t have time for this!"

Barry scowled again. He wasn´t impressed with Leon, despite that the other man seemed to be in a pressed situation. "You should at least tell us where you are going."

"Believe me, I´ll found you when the time comes."

Just then Rebecca caught sight of something. "Hey! It´s Chris! And he has Jill with him!"

Chris and Jill looked okay, even though they seemed like they have been through hell. "Claire and Leon. I´m glad you´re alright!" He gave Barry and Rebecca a quick hug. "I missed you guys too! We have much to talk about…" He was interrupted by Leon.

"Although I´m glad you made it out of there, I have to remind you that we´re still on Umbrella´s grounds. Reinforcements might be on their way. Besides, I´ll contact you later. I´m getting out of here with my men, I advise you to do the same. Umbrella WILL go down, but not tonight. We´ll fight tomorrow." With that Leon turned his back on the S.T.A.R.S and started to walk to the helicopter. Claire ran after him.

"Leon! Okay I understand you have to go back with your men. But you could at least tell me how Sherry is doing."

At that Leon stopped to face her. For a moment Claire thought she could see guilt in his eyes. But then it was gone and his face became unreadable.

"Claire, I don´t have time for longer explanations. But I assure you that Sherry is fine." He gave her a quick hug. "Take care of yourself. See you later." Leon´s second-in-command started to shout at him and Leon ran to the helicopter. As soon as he was onboard the door closed and the helicopter lifted into the sky like a big, black bird. Soon it couldn´t be seen anymore. Claire went back to her brother and the others, feeling very alone.

Not far away, someone was watching the scene through a set of nightvisiongoggles. The person dropped them soon, an angry snarl across his face. Nicholai turned to face Wesker, who seemed to be optimistic, despite their defeat.

"You seem to be very happy about something. Do you mind if I ask you what it is? Since I could use that because for the moment I feel I want to kill something! Or someone."

Wesker smiled his diabolic smile. "Temper, temper Nicholai. Sure the S.T.A.R.S and their allies, no doubt the goverment, has won a victory tonight. But that will be their last. When they attack Umbrella´s HQ, no matter how prepared they are they´ll never defeat our big surprise. They´ll die. But remember Nicholai, I want Redfield for myself.And tonight wasn´t a total waste of time. Umbrella got some testinfo for their monsters from the Testing Zone. And I got to see miss Valentine again, not to mention Chris and his annoying sister."

"You may be right. Understood." Nicholai saw his own helicopter appear in the sky. "See you again, Wesker." With that he went to the newly arrived helicopter.

Wesker smiled back. "Yes we´ll do. And I´m looking forward to it!"

__

To be continued!!!!

So what´ll happen next? You´ll see in the next chapter. I also want to say that I´m sorry for the delay of this chapter. I´ll try to make the next chapter more faster.


	6. Plans are made

To continue the fight

By: Bloodlover

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Disclaimer: All characters I think you know who they are, belong to Capcom, except Emily Johnson and others, and they are my creations inspired by the games, don´t steal them. 

Chapter 6 – Plans are made

**__**

February 10 1999 On the road to secret U.B.C.S base

Claire brushed her arms to warm herself. The night air was chill and she always felt drained after a battle. She glanced over at where her brother and Jill was sitting. Chris had his arm around Jill´s shoulder. They seemed to talk but she couldn´t hear what they said. Claire didn´t had anything against that her brother had a girlfriend, on the contrary. But tonight she felt alone and left out.

The guy that sat beside her, Carlos, also watched Chris and Jill. Claire thought that it might be a good time to start to learn the new people. She cleared her throat to get his attention.

"You know her?"

He startled. "Who?"

"Don´t try to fool me because you can´t. It´s obvious who you´re staring at."

He blushed a bit. "Ah. Yes. At least I know Jill, but not the other guy. Me and her helped ourselves out of Raccoon City."

She raised an eyebrow. "I survived Raccoon too. But I got help from Leon, the guy who was with that other group. We escaped with a little girl, Sherry."

Carlos smiled. "You survived Raccoon City too?! Maybe we should sell t-shirts and stuff with `I survived Raccoon City!´ on? That would be a great business!"

She laughed. "Yeah… I´m sure."

Carlos smiled back but then he turned serious. "We came pretty close to dying though, especially Jill. One of the monsters managed to infect her with the T-Virus. I had to find a hospital and make a vaccine."

Claire nodded. "The same thing happened to me too. Well not the infection part. But Sherry, the little girl, became infected with the G-Virus." She left out the part about the monster being Sherry´s father. "I really thought I was going to lose her, I didn´t know anything about medicine, let alone if there was a vaccine to the G-Virus. But I ran into Sherry´s mother and she gave me instructions on how to make a vaccine. I knew where the lab was, I was in an Umbrella lab, so I found the stuff i needed to make the vaccine. Sherry got through it fine. She got a little fever afterwards but according to the document, it was a probable side effect."

Carlos glanced at her arm. "Hey what happened to you? Surely that isn´t a memory from Raccoon?"

She smiled thinly. "No this is fresh. Some white haired guy surprised me and Chris in the Umbrella building. The creep shot me."

"One of the guards?"

"Ummm… no or yes I think but he wasn´t dressed like the ordinary Umbrella guards. He was dressed kind like you…"

Carlos stiffened. "His clothes were like mine?" Claire nodded. "And short, spiked hair? White?" When Claire nodded a second time, he swore. "Fuck, why am I not surprised! It´s probably Nicholai! He was one of the squad leaders for my group, the U.B.C.S. He betrayed us and nearly killed Jill and me. He killed Tyrell and possibly shot Mikhail, one of the others in my squad."

Claire got a grim expression. "So I guess we have one thing in common. We both want a piece of that creep Nicholai."

Carlos flashed his teeth in a smile which made Claire think of a predator. An angry one. "Well chica, I DO always let the ladies go first but in this case it´s `first to the prize´."

**__**

Goverment secret base

"That Kennedy! Thanks to him we lost a lot of men! It´ll take God knows much time before we can replace the fallen soldiers! And what will Umbrella do in that time?!"

"Calm down, sir." Said a woman softly. She stood in shadow, only her siloutte could be seen.

"We won a victory today, a small one. Sure it could have been better, but mr. Kennedy managed to bring at least some of the soldiers back. He did a couple of mistakes, but he learn quickly. You can´t discard him only after one single mission."

The man turned around to face the woman. Few dared to speak like that to him, but this woman were one of these few. "You are right there Wong, and even if half of the things you told me about Kennedy is true he is a valuable asset. It´s just that can´t afford mistakes now. Just look at what happened in Raccoon! You were one of the few that survived that mission." Ada smiled at him and nodded, but when he mentioned Raccoon City the smile disappeared like it never had been there.

*************************

Leon felt a lump of dread in his stomach as he walked through the corridor to the briefing room. He knew he had screwed up. Okay maybe not a TOTAL screwup, but still a screwup. Men had died and he couldn´t stop thinking what would have happened if he had stayed instead of running off to help ms. Claire Redfield and her brother. _What´s done is done. You did the right thing. If you hadn´t helped, they would have died and surely that Valentine woman._ But he still couldn´t get rid of that feeling. When he arrived he had met Ark and he had said something about the boss being furious.

Now he saw the big door that went to the boss´s room. He braced himself and opened it. 

The boss sat at his ordinary place at his desk. One thing was strange. The bodyguard that was always with him wasn´t there. Instead a woman stood by his side, but when he got closer she quickly went through the other door in the back, so he never got the chance to see her. _Strange woman… And why go out now? Was it because of me? No… it can´t be it, can it?_ The other strange thing was that the boss smiled at him! The boss hadn´t even snickered the time Leon had knew him. And why NOW of all times? "Leon! Welcome back!"

Leon saluted him. "I´m sorry for the loss of the men…"

The boss grimaced a bit at that. "Yes, but I also knew that you did a great job despite this. Sure we couldn´t take out that HQ but that was because of some… interferences. I already red the report that you e-mailed me on your way here."

"But what now sir?"

"We´ll need some time to rest and heal. During that time we might as well make some useful work. Your next assignment will be a stealth operation. You and a contact, whom will be meeting up with you, will sneak around and gather information. The rest of your group will meet up with the remains of the S.T.A.R.S and U.B.C.S. When the time is right… both groups will strike at the main HQ of Umbrella. Check mate!"

Leon resisted the laugh that threatened to burst out. He knew from Ark that the boss loved schack and other games. It was one of his few passions. "That sounds like a good plan. When will I meet this contact? And where?"

"I´ll send for you when it´s time. In the meantime, get some rest. You´ll need it… Dismissed!"

With that Leon returned the salute and went to his own quarters.

**__**

U.B.C.S base

"Home sweet home!" exclaimed Emily as they drove up to the main gates. "Well as home as one of these bases can get…"

Carlos jumped of the army truck. "How long do you think we´ll call this home?"

Barry followed him. "As long as we´ll need it. Depending when we strike, when Leon´s group contacts us… During the battle it doesn´t matter. If we succeed… well that´s a problem for later."

"Hopefully there will BE a later." Replied Richard grimly. Donnie patted him on the back supportly. "Come on Richie! We must think we´ll win, we have to keep out spirits up."

Richard glared at him. "Don´t call me `Richie´ or I´ll show you how I keep my spirits up. On your expense."

"Enough children." Said Emily.

"I agree. Now I just want to take some time to wash up and relax. It was a pretty intense battle." Said Rebecca and sighed.

Carlos laughed a little. "You call THAT intense?! If you just knew what battles I have been through…" Emily gave him a look but not as stern as she looked like. "Later Oliviera. I´m just thinking of the group´s best. If we were to listen to all your BATTLES it would take forever to stop you. In that time Umbrella would fill the whole world with freaks."

"Then all the more reason to relax and get ready, right?" asked Claire. Emily nodded.

After Claire came the others, Chris and Jill among them. Claire noticed once more that Carlos looked at them strangely. _What happened in Raccoon? What´s the deal with him and Jill? Is he.. can it be that he loves Jill too, oh boy!_ Claire shook her head a little. The last thing they needed was some "two-men-and-a-woman" triangle. Those often led to battles and they had to stick together. She cast another glance at Carlos and decided that if it was needed, she would take care of the problem herself. Or better yet ask Jill how she felt about the whole thing. _But what, in the case she can´t make up her mind, will I do? Set up a fight? Boy, I never had two boys running after me._ Memories of all the guys on her school came over her. She wondered briefly what the others did at the university? Did they missed her? Did they try to call her? _Of course they do! After this is over I go back to school._ But then came the memories of Steve came mercilessly. _Oh Steve, where are you?_ Claire fought down tears and drove the thoughts away. 

Emily finally came up to a couple of double doors and opened them. Inside was a briefing room. Rebecca groaned. "Come on! Can´t we rest for awhile?! I´m so tired that I´ll fall down any minute!"

Emily gave her a stern look. "It won´t take long. Pull yourself together Rebecca! You was in S.T.A.R.S. Act like a proffesional." Rebecca nodded as an apology. 

All of them sat down, except for Emily. She cleared her throat. "Okay. First of all Im overjoyed that we all met up. Also that Chris and Claire managed to save Jill." She nodded to the Redfields and Jill. Claire spoke up. 

"Leon helped out too!"

Emily nodded again, this time with a bit impatience. "Yes. Leon Kennedy and his group was a great help. But now I want to recap what me and the other survivors of the U.B.C.S went through, it may have importance for the mission. On our way here, we got a tip from some guy, who said that the coordinates to the real Umbrella HQ might be in the Paris lab. We then was about to meet up with Oliviera" she nodded to Carlos and Barry "and Burton. But we were suddenly attacked by soldiers, no doubt from Umbrella. Someone most have leaked information about us. Therefore I ask you what you think of this. If the guy who gave us this tip is the traitor, then there is a BIG risk for using them."

All sat silent. Jill finally broke the silence. "Well, we don´t have so many alternatives so I think…"

Claire interrupted her. "That can wait. I agree that this is our only chance, but I think we should wait for Leon to contact us before we make our move. He said he would contact us later. With them we would have a better chance. Do you remember their arsenal?" 

Emily looked suspiously at her. She wasn´t the only one. "Claire, I know that he helped you out of Raccoon…." When Claire started to protest she held up a hand. "And he helped you save that little girl Sherry too. But we have to be careful."

Claire was still angry. She stood up and put her knuckles on the table. "What do you suggest then?! That we wait for Umbrella to knock on the door?! Or maybe until they destroy the world?! I said myself that we should wait, but only until we got ahold of Leon." 

"Easy Claire." Chris put his hand on her shoulder to try to calm her down. "Emily isn´t accusing Leon, she has a point.

"I don´t think Leon is a traitor, even though he should have better manners. What Emily means is that we shouldn´t trust this group he is with too easily. Leon may be on our side, but what plans has the group he´s with? We shouldn´t trust someone new too easy." Barry crossed his arms. "But the best thing to do now is to get some rest. Then we´ll decide."

Emily nodded. "You´re right. This isn´t the time to make decisions. I just wanted to make a point what we may be facing. We´ll sleep on it and tomorrow we hold a meeting at dawn. Dismissed!"

All of them rose from their chairs and started for the doors. Jill turned to Emily. "Do you know if there is a telephone on the base that can´t be traced?" She nodded and pointed to the communications room. When Jill started to walk down to it, Chris followed her. 

"Who are you going to call?"

She turned to face him. "My parents. There was months ago since I contacted them. The first time was after the Spencer case, I told them to leave the country and go into hiding. The second was after Raccoon City. I just wanted to let them know I was still alive." She looked down at the floor. "We may go to the last battle soon. I just want to hear their voices one last time… in case I…I…"

Chris took her into his arms and embraced her in a strong hug.

"It´ll be okay." They released each other and then walked to the communictions room. Since she was an expert in machinery, it didn´t take Jill too long to start up the communications device.. 

"Hello?" answered her mother hesitately. Jill took a deep breath.

"It´s me mom. Jill. I just wanted to say hello."

"Jill?! Oh thank God, we were so worried about you! Where have you been all those months?! When can we see you again?"

"Not yet mom. You have to stay away. Please don´t worry about me."

Her mother sighed. "I know. But I hope this nightmare with Umbrella will be over soon. Then you can come back to us."

Jill felt the tears coming up but fought them down. "It will be mom. Sooner or later it WILL!"! 

"What will happen now?"

"We may have a plan. Hopefully something that will stop Umbrella."

"I hope you will too, both for ourselves and for the world. You be careful now? And come back!"

Jill felt that she now knew what they had to do. There was really no other way. At least not something she could think of. "Of course mom. Say hello to everyone for me. Goodbye…"

Jill ended the transmission and burst into tears. "God… I hope I´ll be able to keep that promise. That we all make it back."

Chris embraced her. "Yes when we defeat Umbrella. Sooner or later…"

Jill looked up at him. "So you have made up your mind about using the coordinates?"

"We don´t have much choice, do we?"

"No we don´t." 

Together, they went to their room.

To be continued!!!

__

So what will happen next? Will the heroes walk into the obvious trap? Or will they use it to their advantage? Is ther really not another way? And when will Leon and Ada finally meet…? Stay tuned! 


	7. On the move

To continue the fight

By: Bloodlover

__

Disclaimer: Resident Evil and it´s characters belong to Capcom, except for the chararcters that I made up, don´t use them without permission. Hope you like the story!

Chapter 7 – On the move

**__**

(Early) February 11 1999, U.B.C.S base

Rebecca went through the quiet corridors at the U.B.C.S base. When she wanted to think, she wanted to be alone. She stopped at one of the windows and looked out. The early morning was very clear and the moon cast a gentle, silver glow over the landscape. She sighed. Despite the beautiful sight, she felt very alone. She missed her family that had gone into hiding, but at least they were alive. A lot of people weren´t. All her friends in Bravo team for example. She closed her eyes and remembered them all. Enrico Marino, a tough team leader, but at the same time a rock in tight situations. Forest Speyer, the joker in the group always wisecracking. Carlos reminded her of Forest a bit. Same humor, same eyes. And like Carlos Forest had had good humor. She understood why Chris and the others had been so good friends with him. She had been a friend of him too of course, but the rest of the guys had known him for longer time. Richard Aiken was the most friendly guy she had known and it was always he who took care of the new guys in S.T.A.R.S. Kenneth Sullivan had taught her alot about chemistry and never became angry when she screwed up something and it went POOF! Edward Dewey had been sort of a loner, but he had been a nice guy. Poor Joseph and Brad in Alpha team had died too. Joseph was ripped to shreds in Raccoon Forest and Brad had died in Raccoon City by Nemesis. All the people in Raccoon City had died too.

__

And Billy…

She closed her eyes. It was still hurtful to think of him. She would stop Umbrella for all those that had died. _For you Billy…_ she thought as she started to walk again. She had to get some sleep if she was going to be alert later on. 

**__**

New York

Leon waited impatiently. His contact was half an hour late. He scowled and praced back and forth like a caged animal. It just wasn´t fair. He had been awakened early by Ark, saying he had an hour to get ready and go to this place where he would meet his contact. Together they would go on a covert mission. To kill more time he went over their objectives for the 100th time. 

One, investigate what Umbrella´s defenses are. Two, if it´s possible, sabotage their work.

Suddenly he heard footsteps behind him. He spun around and his hand moved to the place in his jacket where he kept his Desert Eagle. If the person was an enemy he was well prepared to deal with it…

"Sorry if I´m late. Got stuck in the traffic."

Leon´s heart seemed to stop when he heard this voice. It couldn´t be…

"Ada?!" he said under his breath. It was impossible. But here she was in front of him, alive and well. She was still the tall, beautiful woman he had met in Raccoon City and she was totally dressed in black. Something that looked like guilt flashed over her face. 

"Yes Leon, it´s me." After that silence hung between them. Leon didn´t know whetever he should be happy or confused or angry with her for not contacting him. It was something of all those three. _At least she´s alive. Thank God!_ He cleared his throat.

"Ada I…" But she hushed him with her hand.

"Later Leon. We have to move fast now."

With that she reached into her jacket and pulled out a device. She pushed the button on it. Moments later he heard a car in distance. Leon wanted them to hide but he had to trust Ada. The car pulled up beside them and Ada jumped in. She looked at him somewhat impatient. Leon felt a little guilty and jumped in after her. She was his contact person, she had to know what she was doing.

__

And I can trust her, can´t I? After all we went through in Raccoon, she sacrificed herself for me. She said she loved me… She couldn´t have lied about that that´s an impossibility…

To clear his confused thoughts he started to talk. 

"So we´re going to the Umbrella Headquarters, right?"

She smiled at him and nodded back. "Right, and we´re going there by boat. Our driver will take us to a little harbor, Pennydale Harbor, where a boat awaits us. It won´t be recognized by any security, it has stealth camoflage."

When she saw his astonished look, she smiled. "Come on, you know the boss always give the best. After we arrive at our landing spot, we´ll put on Umbrella uniforms. That way we should go unnoticed into the HQ. That will make the mission more easy to carry out. Understood?"

Leon nodded and Ada smiled in satisfaction. Suddenly she looked like she had forgot something. "Also Leon, I hope you did bring the coordinates along."

"Of course."

"Just checking."

**__**

HCF Headquarters

Albert Wesker walked down a long, cold corridor. He stopped at the door at the end and used his card key to unlock it. The door closed behind him and the researchers looked at him startled. He didn´t look happy, which was a bad sign.

"Any progress…?" he asked, with a strong impatience in his voice. The researher responsible for the project took a step towards him.

"No progress. No matter what we do to him, he just won´t evolve."

Wesker clenched his teeth. "Keep working! Next time I come, I´ll expect results. Otherwise one of you incompetent fools will take mr Burnside´s place!"

With that he turned around to leave. But the leader went after him and pulled his arm.

"Please sir! We were successful at extracting the virus from him! We will suc…"

His words died as Wesker grabbed his neck and snapped it. The lifeless body of the researcher crumpled to the floor which led to terrified gasps from the rest.

"Take this as a lesson never to disappoint me! Most of all DON´T touch me."

After Wesker left, the researchers were still shaking with fear as they looked at the corpse of their former boss. Finally one of them too charge and barked at them to get back to work.

The only one who was left undisturbed was Steve Burnside, asleep in the stasistube.

**__**

February 11 1999, U.B.C.S base

Jill looked at her friends and comrades. There was a very tense feeling in the briefing room. But she knew what she was going to do. Umbrella would be stopped, they had to be, no matter the cost. Chris met her gaze and smiled. She smiled back. At least she would have him at her side.

Emily cleared her throat. "Well have you all made up your minds?" All heads nodded. "Good. Because now it´s time to vote. Remember now that if we take our chances with the coordinates, there is a BIG chance that it is a trap. No one will hold it against you if you chose not to do it. But now I´ll speak for myself and I say that I will fight." She made a short pause and continued. "I can´t see any other option than fighting. I wouldn´t be able to look at myself in a mirror if I just stood by."

Jill and Chris rose as one. "I say we fight. We can´t just stand by and watch Umbrella destroy the world." Emily smiled at them, relieved.

Barry and the others stood up too. " I have to admit we haven´t got another solution on how to defeat Umbrella. But we can try fooling them. Trap or no trap, we´ll kick their asses!" exclaimed Carlos. Rebecca snickered at his words but nodded.

"Time to let the dice play!" said Donnie with a grin. Richard Colt stood silently, but he nodded.He then turned to Emily and asked.

"Now that this was settled, Emily, have you heard from Leon yet?" 

Emily stroke a strand of blond hair from her face as she answered. "No, from his second in command. He says that they have deployed a covert ops force en route to here. Two battle helicopters."

Richard raised his brow. "So fast?! When did you get this message?"

"Earlier this morning. Before you say anything Richard, I have to say that I would not agree on anything without discussing with you guys. But this was a transmission that was just sent, they didn´t wait for me to respond." She snorted. "Sounded more like an order to me. But we can´t afford to be pettyminded." 

"Still it sounds good." said Barry. "Well until they arrive, I better check the weapons. You coming Carlos?"

"Sure." Carlos rose from his seat. 

"We should train. I´ll be at the training area." Said Richard.

"I´ll prepare the medicine. I have a strong feeling that we´ll need it." Rebecca ran out of the room to the laboratory.

**__**

Goverment helicopter

Dan Hawkins looked down at the landscape below them. Soon they would be over the desert. Where the U.B.C.S base lay in secrecy. _Hope this goes well. I wonder how it goes for Leon and that contact of his. Many things ride on how well they perform._ He looked at his nearest friend and comrade, Gilbert Masters. "When will we be arriving there?"

"Twenty minutes. Hope they are prepared."

"They better be." The other man´s tone of voice was lighthearted but there was also an edge in it. Dan replied that they seemed to be competent. _At least if they were with the S.T.A.R.S and U.B.C.S. Well can´t worry about that now._ Dan Hawkins leaned back, feeling the vibrations of the helicopter. Despite his worries he actually began to feel excited about the mission. 

**__**

U.B.C.S base

After a while, the pilot informed them that they had arrived at the base. "Okay men, saddle up!"

The two helicopters set down on the heliport, whipping up sand. A group of people were heading towards them, some of them were familar. Dan ran up to them, his men behind him, and saluted.

"Greetings. I´m sergeant Dan Hawkins and I´m a friend of Leon´s and his second in command. I think I´ve met some of you… Anyway Leon couldn´t come so I´m here with the men." He gestured towards his group, they nodded. "Can we get inside? I´ll explain the plan there."

The tough looking, but slender woman he´d seen at the frensh Umbrella HQ stepped forward. "Pleasure to meet you, sergeant Hawkins. You and your men will be great help in taking out Umbrella. Follow us."

With that she turned around and went inside. The rest followed them and Dan got a good look at his new soon-to-be team mates. They seemed good enough but also a bit reserved. _Probably they can´t afford to trust strangers too easily. Hope I can ease their fears._

Emily led them down a hall to a briefing room. They all sat down and introduced themselves. After that was finished, Dan told them about the plan.

"So Leon and his contact will collect info and possibly sabotage Umbrella´s defenses. We´ll be on standby until then. When we get their signal, we´ll go in."

"Who is this contact of Leon´s?" Asked Claire curiously.

"Actually I don´t know. Since this is a covert op, only the ones who really has to know get to know the whole plan. The only thing you all need to know is that we´ll do the strike when we get the signal. Until then, we´re on standby."

Donnie moaned a little. "Standby? That´s sounds boring!" After Emily glared at him he quickly added "But also important."

"Will we strike as one team? Or will we divide ourselves?" asked Barry, arms crossed. He always wanted to be sure all was set before moving out. He had learned this from hard won experience.

"Oops, almost forgot sorry! As two teams. Stealthly but we´ll strike at the heart of the HQ. If we succeed, Umbrella won´t have any HQ left. If we fail… well let´s not talk about that. We all know what is at stake here. Dismissed!"

"Good. Well that´s about it. Any questions? Fine. I want you all to gear up and meet at the helicopters." 

With that all of them rose. Barry and Carlos ran away to get the weapons and Rebecca after the medicine she had prepared. All the equipment were taken to the helicopters. Each person got three First-Aid sprays and two mixed herbs, Rebecca had also included the cure against poison, in case they encountered any poisonous monsters. 

"Good work Becky. I would hate to go up against an army of those spiders and not having any cure. Dying from poison… That would be horrible even if I survived the monsters themselves." said Claire. Donnie smirked. "I agree. It would be ironic if some pesky poison killed you when you had the luck surviving the monster´s attack…" 

"Try not get killed at all. That would be even nicer." replied Richard as he loaded his Colt Python and stuck it in his belt. That was the only weapon he wanted but he had a lot of ammonution. Jill and Claire had opted for grenade launchers while Rebecca said a Costum Beretta was enough for her since she wasn´t so good with weapons. Her role was the medic, nothing more. Barry and Emily had Colt Pythons and S.T.A.R.S berettas, Carlos and Donnie had rifles with SIGPROs as sidearms. Chris had his trusty shotgun and a Magnum. When all of them had geared up, they were hushed by Emily and Dan.

"Okay, pat attention! As you know we´ll now divide into two teams, Alpha and Delta. Alpha team will consist of your teams, Chris and Emily. My team, Delta, will consist of the men I brought with me. I will keep contact with Leon myself. This is just a safety measure, mind you. The less who know of the whole plan the better. When I get his signal I´ll tell you to move in. We´ll go by side entrances, we don´t want to draw too much attention to ourselves. We´ll gather so much evidence we need and fight any resistance. Remember now, we will end up fighting monsters and maybe even humans. BUT I don´t want anyone to go off on their own to seek out someone or something to kill. If you do that, trouble will surely follow. So just stick to the mission…"

"…and everything will be fine." Emily finished with a smile. The teams cheered as answer and climbed into the helicopters. The two black helicopters rose into the sky as one, taking their passengers with them to the battle of their lives…

TO BE CONTINUED!

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And now they are on their way. They couldn´t find any other solution but, hey, a lot of them have been in more dire situations and they still made it! Strange things do happen, and this is a videogame or rather a story based on a videogame after all. Besides Umbrella is a bunch of idiots, aren´t they…? But how will Leon and Ada fare? What is Wesker´s agenda? And btw, I made up the Pennydale Harbor. At least I don´t know any harbor named that. Same thing goes for the hotel Chris and Claire stayed at in part two. Guess I forgot to say that, sorry. Stay tuned for next part! And like always, feel free to review. 


	8. Stealthy approach

To continue the fight

By: Bloodlover

__

Disclaimer: All the RE characters belong to Capcom, except for the characters I made up, inspired by the RE games. Don´t use them without my permission, please. Hope you enjoy the story!

Chapter 8 – Stealthy approach

**__**

February 11 1999, Pennydale Harbor (Night)

Leon and Ada said a quick goodbye to the driver and walked over to where the sub were docked. Leon felt more nervous now when they were on their way. _If everything goes well, we´ll be celebrating the fall of Umbrella tomorrow. If not, well then we´re all dead._ This thought had been in his head for a long time and he was sick and tired of it. If he kept on like this, it wouldn´t be a surprise if he GOT killed. Thinking like that all the time could be dangerous. They were fighting to live. 

"Here it is." whispered Ada. A small and slick grey submarine lay in the dark, waiting for them. It was big enough for two of them. _Perfect for a _very_ intimate moment…_ The next instant he asked why he thought a thing like that. This was a mission, they didn´t have time for personal moments, especially not intimate ones. 

Still he wanted to get some answers from Ada. How she had survived, why she didn´t contact him after Raccoon and most of all, what did she feel for him now? Did she still love him? Or was their moments in the dying city of Raccoon just a fling?_ Fling? Wouldn´t count on that…There was meaning in her words. I don´t think she would say that if she didn´t mean it with all her heart._ _Unless it is what you want to believe Kennedy.._. _STOP IT! We did love each other! And I still love her the only question is…_

"Leon, what is wrong with you tonight? Or is it just that you´re afraid to jump into vehicles with strange people?" She made a short pause. "Or is it ME you´re afraid of?"

As an effort to try to prove her wrong, he practically threw himself in after her. "No way! I..I was just admiring the beauty of the sub." He knew at the same moment he said it that it was a stupid answer but Ada let him get away with it. After he closed the hatch behind him, she started up the engine. Quick but silent, the sub speeded towards it´s destination.

After a long silence, Leon finally gathered enough courage to ask Ada what he wondered. He cleared his throat.

"Ada. I have some questions and I want answers to them." It wasn´t just a question, it held a demand too. Despite what he felt for her, he wasn´t going to be led around like an oxen by the nose this time. He had matured more now since his experience in Raccoon City. He knew he couldn´t work with someone who wasn´t trustful.

She was silent for awhile, but then she spoke. "Leon, I´m so sorry for everything. I´m sorry I lied to you in Raccoon but… it felt necessery. After you left the power room I came back to life. I don´t know how but… I wanted to contact you, but.. something inside me stopped me from doing that. Maybe it was some kind of instinct. I might have thought it was better for you to believe that I was dead and move on with your life, rather than to pursue me. I´m a spy after all…" She closed her eyes and then opened them. Shame and regret was written on her face. "After I escaped the city, I contacted my superiors. They said I was going on a big, secret mission. I was also leaving my old identity behind."

"Like a snake changing it´s skin?" replied Leon. It was meant as a joke but Ada took his words seriously.

" Except that I´m deadlier than the snake. I felt more sorrow this time than the other times. I… I think it was because of you, Leon. You changed me. For the better." 

She looked at him with a strange expression on her face but then shook it off. "In any case, for the last few months I´ve been in training. To prepare for this."

"I understand Ada, thank you. But you left one part out. How did you survive?"

"I´m not too sure myself. I really thought that `this is it I´m dead´ at that time…"

They both sat in silence. Finally Leon broke it. "Ada. It´s still great too see you again. I´ve missed you so much." He smiled at her and she smiled back at him. "Same here Leon. Same here…"

**__**

Goverment Secret Operations Base, somewhere in the U.S.A

Sherry paced back and forth. She was tired of waiting! She was also tired of people she loved disappearing. First there had been her parents´ death. Claire had told her her mother´s last words, they had cried together and Claire had comforted her, promising she would never leave Sherry. But shortly after an argument with Leon, Claire disappeared, the promise broken._ Even though I know she wouldn´t break a promise if she could prevent it._ Now Leon and now that woman in pink that she had grown affection for had left her too. There was no one left. She sat down on the floor and felt tears coming. It seemed like everytime someone loved and cared for her, they left her after that. Now there was only cold, grumpy men asking her questions about the place she just wanted to forget, Raccoon City. Was the reason to all of this HER? Could she be cursed?

Suddenly her bitter thoughts were interrupted by voices outside the door.

"Time to watch that stupid kid again?"

"Yeah. Why did Kennedy and Wong both disappear? They were the only ones who even bothered toddle that little brat."

Sherry forced her teeth still, so they wouldn´t rattle. `Stupid kid´? `Little brat?´Who did they think they were, calling her names like that?! She was a good girl and a smart one, Claire and others had told her that several times. She was also clever and always got good grades in school. Her parents had been proud of her too, even though they barely saw her. She suddenly remembered how they could light up when she showed them her tests. How proud they had been. She felt the grief fill up again but quickly forced it back. The guard spoke again.

"Something came up. Okay I´ll take her to get some stuff to eat now." The other man walked away and the door started to open. Sherry stood up, trying to look as innocent and clueless as they thought she was. So Leon was really gone… Well she had expected it, but also knew he would be back. Claire and that woman in pink would come too and they would leave this stupid place. For now the best thing she could do was keeping her eyes and ears open. The grown ups here obviously thought she was just a stupid girl. But they didn´t know that little girls had their own way of finding things out. Maybe, just maybe she could find something REALLY interesting out…? _Like getting out of this place._ The door opened and a big man looked down on her with a cold expression.

"What will we do now? Is it food time?" she asked as innocently she could. When the guard scoffed at her, Sherry secretly smiled.

**__**

Battle Helicopter

Jill still had her head on Chris´s shoulder. She glanced at her teammates. Even though she knew they had done the right thing she couldn´t lose the feeling that something was about to happen, something terrible. _Maybe it´s just normal fear of having to fight Umbrella´s freaks one more time, worry about if they have any new nightmares in store. Or maybe… running into Wesker again. _She still the encounter with him and Nicholai, how he´d laughed when he plunged the syringe into her arm. She closed her eyes, forcing that memory away. She had been rescued by Chris, and he would kill Wesker when they met again. Somehow she just knew. _Or it could be wishings…_

"What is it Jill?" asked Chris concerned. "Bad memories? Don´t worry, this will go well. And afterwards we´ll celebrate."

Jill snuggled up to him more. "Yes we will."

"That´s the spirit!" he replied and stroke her hair away from her face. 

"Hey, you too lovebirds, pay some attention!" It was Claire and she bore a michevious grin, despite her attempt to be serious. Emily nodded a _thank you_ to her and began.

"I just wanted to make a last time check, okay? We´ll soon enter the head HQ of Umbrella Inc. A cooperation that has much blood on it´s hands. Add the fact that the possibility of a spy in our ranks and things gets even uglier. So I don´t want anyone lagging behind, you have to stay focused all the time! Okay, when I get the signal from Leon… we go in together with Delta team. I ask one more time if there are any questions. Or is everything clear?"

"Yes, ma´am!" said the S.T.A.R.S in union.

Tension was tight in both helicopters. But what no one knew was that there was one who very well knew about a spy in their ranks. And this person were intent on keeping it that way. The traitor smiled inwardly. Those fools, they would never know who the traitor was until it was too late…

**__**

Head HQ for Umbrella, location ?

"Here it is. Let´s stop." whispered Ada, as if there was anyone who could overhear them. _Probably the dreadful tension here. Now we are really on Umbrella´s playground._ She opened the hatch as soon as the sub stopped, and jumped off. Leon followed her and closed the hatch after them. The automatic program disguised it with a stealth cloak for security reasons. It wouldn´t protect the sub if you searched for it carefully, but it would hide it from guards who just patrolled the area and never really searched the area. This wasn´t a busy place after all. _Should things screw up despite this, we just have to find another way out somehow._ had Ada explained for him while they were in the sub. _One of the parts in the process to start the sub, you have to get your fingerprints scanned. And it has yours and mine, no one else´s. Should someone except us try to start it up, it will self destruct. This technology can´t fall into the hands of the enemy. _Leon understood this perfectly well.

"Now we just have to lay our hands on Umbrella costumes. The only problem is that we have to take out a couple of guards."

Leon felt cold. He had expected that they had to kill the guards, but still… "Isn´t there a chance that we can avoid killing them?"

Ada sighed, but with sympathy. "Leon, I understand how you feel. But we can´t afford any mistakes. It could ruin the mission."

"I know, I know. Let´s go."

Together, they sneaked out, listening if they heard any footfalls or voices. Suddenly, when they walked through some sort of warehouse, they heard growlings. Inhuman growlings.

Ada gestured that they had to hurry. "I bet they keep some of their lovelies here. Let´s hurry on. If we stay here, sooner or later someone will notice that something isn´t right."

Leon smiled. "Exactly. But if we could use that to our advantage? I don´t think there will be that many guards. If we could surprise them…" 

Ada looked doubtful. "You mean ambush them? It´s a good idea but what if it comes more guards than we suspected. And with all those monsters around us everywhere I don´t think we should…"

Ada was interrupted when Leon placed his hand over her mouth and dragged in her behind one of the cages. He saw now that there were Hunters in them. He looked the monster straight in the eye and glared. _Keep your mouth shut, freak!_ was the silent message. 

"Four guards." whispered Ada. Leon knew what she meant. They had a chance against the guards if they moved swift now. _The Hunters are locked up so we should be safe from them. Unless the guards would release them but I don´t think even them would be so stupid to do a thing like that._ He nodded at her and they split, each going to each side of the cage. Leon picked up a small stone that lay on the ground and tossed it.

"What was that?!" exclaimed one of the guards. One of the others, who seemed to be the leader, looked around him with his rifle drawn.

"Better check around. But it´s probably nothing… Still, keep your guard up!"

Leon sneaked around the corner as he heard one guard coming behind him. Then he heard a soft sound from a silencer, Ada must have got him. One moment later he heard another shot. _She´s really good, time for me to join the game…_

"Who´s there?! Show yourself!" The leader now began to panic and quickly ran over to where Leon stood. _Man, how did this fool get to be a leader…?_ Leon couldn´t help feeling a bit sympathy for the poor fool, but raised his own silencer equipped gun, and shot the man right in the chest when he came into view. He heard one shot, a scream but after that, a hit, a moan and a shout with triumph.

"Got you now, bitch!"

__

ADA! She must have gotten caught. Without thinking about being stealthy, Leon ran over to the place where he had heard the brawl. 

"Ada!" he turned the corner and saw Ada grapple with the last guard. The guard held her up as a human shield.

"You´re busted! Now unless you want your friend here to get shot, you better drop your weapon and put your hands in the air!"

Leon silently cursed but before he could do anything, Ada suddenly bent over and drew a knife from an unseen pocket on her right leg. She stabbed her captor in the eye with it. His scream was shrill and Leon felt his stomach turn. Ada pushed him to the ground and picked up her Browning from the ground. She turned around and shot the guard in the head.

The warehouse now lay in silence. Leon felt sickened over the actions. Yes, the guards might have been on Umbrella´s side and committed God knows what atrocities. Then again they might just have been misled. In any case they had died in a brutal way. And HE had killed some of them. Ada looked up and met his gaze. She looked sick but also determined. After all she was the spy with more experience. 

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yes. You?"

He just walked over to her and nodded. She put her arms around him and looked him in the eyes. Hers was full with sympathy, even though she looked a bit impatient.

"Liar. It´s okay to feel guilt, you SHOULD feel something when killing someone. That is not something you should do without remorse. I hate this too, but you have to pull yourself together now. We have a job to do." She walked over to the guards corpses and looked them over.

"Let´s see… This guys uniform fits you right on. And this one´s… No he´s too big. This one however… This one would be perfect on me." She started to pull off the guards uniform. "They are a bit stained, we have to remove the blood, wash it away. Let´s go back to where the sub was. We can hide the bodies there too." When she noticed he didn´t join her, she got an impatient expression on her face.

"Leon, I understand how you feel but we have no time for this. Help me with this now!"

__

God, this is awful… No, matter how noble our cause is this is just too much. After helping Ada with dragging the bodies of the Umbrella guards to the water, he bagan to take off the guard´s uniform. He then walked over to the water and put the clothes down. The water were cold as hell and it was soon turned crimson by the blood. Leon shuddered, both at the water´s coldness and what they just had done. 

As soon as the clothes had dried, the two agents put them on. Leon felt very uncomfortable. It felt like he was dressed in death. Ada looked him in the eye.

"Leon. Let´s go. There isn´t much time left." 

"Okay."

They dragged the corpses over to an abondoned crate that stood in a corner. No one should even think about looking there. At least not after they reported to the commander that it was nothing. Ada was already on it. Leon stood silent, he didn´t want to disturb her. The only sound except for Ada´s report on the radio was the growls from the monsters in their cages, making Leon more uncomfortable than he already was. _Okay, we have fixed the guards. Too bad we had to kill them… No put that thought away Leon! We have to find and sabotage the security._ Ada had just finished the report on the radio and turned to him.

"Leon, good news. I found a map in this uniform´s pocket." Ada showed him it with a grim smile. "It says there is an elevator not far away. Let´s try it."

They moved silently through the corridors, stopping only to salute the guards they encountered, until they came to a large elevator. Ada pushed the button, and the elevator arrived shortly after. They walked in and Ada took a look at the map again.

"Let´s see… That room should be the computer terminal. From there it should be easy to sabotage the security. After that we´ll send the signal to the others and we´re home free."

He looked back at her. "I hope it goes well. Then again, it HAS to work."

"You took the words right out of my mouth, Leon."

**__**

HCF Head quarters

Albert Wesker had just gotten word from Nicholai that the S.T.A.R.S team were on their way. The spy seemed to be quite good. Hunk already had troops to defend Umbrella´s HQ and soon it would be time for Wesker to make his move. He smiled. _Chris… I can´t wait to see you again. I wonder if there will be a chance to kill your dear sister in front of you? She wouldn´t put up a good fight at all, I learned that from Rockfort. And let´s not forget Jill, it would even easier than Claire. It would hurt you as well._ He started to chuckle but it soon died out. He had to get his accomplice for the task at hand. He began to walk towards the lab.

"You better be ready Burnside. You´re coming with me tonight. We can´t make ms. Redfield wait for you…"

To be continued…

__

Ada sure is a dangerous woman, isn´t she? But judging from RE2, I also think she has feelings despite the ice cold spy image and that she truly loves Leon. Hope that part with them after the fight wasn´t too sappy but I wanted to show Ada´s more softer side, despite the fact that she and Leon are on a mission. I also hope you didn´t think Leon was too tough on Ada in the sub. But he´s got a right for some answers, right? I also put that part in about Sherry because I think she is a tough kid, despite what so many says about how worthless she is. She survived Raccoon after all. To do that, you HAVE to be resourceful. 

But who could the spy be…?Will our heroes discover this before it´s too late? Stay tuned! 


	9. The first attack wave

To continue the fight

By: Bloodlover

__

Disclaimer: All the RE characters belong to Capcom. Except for the ones I made up for this story, please don´t use them without my permission. Hope you enjoy the story!

Chapter 9 – The first attack wave

**__**

February 11 1999, HCF HQ (Late night)

The new leader for the researcher team walked down the corridor to the lab. He had taken a short break to gather his thoughts. Since his very life was at stake on finding a way to make Burnside evolve, he better soon come up with something. Wesker would surely come back sooner or later. 

__

Damn you Wesker! And damn YOU Burnside! It´s your fault that I´m in this mess. If you just could turn into the freak you´re supposed to be, I wouldn´t have a death sentence hanging over my head. 

The fact that the young man still remained human was something that bothered the researcher. Steve Burnside had been turned into a monster and then back. It shouldn´t be a problem to turn him back into the freak he was before. So why was he still human?

__

Screw it! Sooner or later I´ll turn that stupid boy into the freak he was… Just a matter of time.

He swiped his card through the reader and walked in. Just a few were left despite Wesker´s threat. _After all it is MY head that will roll should we fail_. The thought was bitter and cynic but it was the truth. No one had their doubts about who would die if they didn´t successed. Worse than that, he would take Burnside´s place. They would throw the boy out, maybe in the trash dumpster… _Fitting for HIM but they would put ME in the stasis tube!_ He shuddered again at the thought. He forced his voice to be steady as he addressed his collegues.

"Okay, who else is staying? Or do you want to face Wesker´s wrath?"

Before he could get an answer, red lights started to blink and an alarm shook them all. His researchers ran away like the cowards they were, but he stayed. Maybe, just maybe… This must mean he had succeeded! Wesker would REWARD him instead of killing him! 

Carefully he went over to the tube. It oozed with cold. He opened it and looked down. Suddenly a hand came up and grabbed his throat in a deadly grip. The researcher looked terrified into the grim face of Steve Burnside. Who SHOULD have been asleep and SHOULD NOT be able to do this.

"Helpgauckk!" was all he could say before Steve tightened his grip. He moved his face so it was only inches away from the scared researcher.

"Shut up! Where… where am I?!" he rasped. _He.. he looks like he has been raised from his grave! He´s going to kill me…_

The researcher struggled to talk, to answer the question. If he didn´t he suspected that the young Burnside would kill him. _He sure looks like he´s capable to do it._

"H…HCF head quarters!" he gasped.

"Where is.. this HCF?"

"Secret locatio..! Okay, okay I tell you! We are at one of the head labs of HCF. In Washington D.C…"

Steve rose from the tube, still holding onto the researcher. "Okay so that´s how it is."

The reseacher thought he might have seen hesitation in Steve´s eyes but it soon disappeared."In any case I´m getting out of here. And you´re going to help me." He began dragging the reseacher towards the door that led out of the lab. 

Before they reached the door however, it opened revealing Wesker. At the sight of Steve and the researcher he grinned. "So. You´re finally awake! I must thank you…" he said to the researcher and stopped beside him. "…but I don´t have any more use for you now."

He tore the scared man away from Steve and swiftly snapped his neck. A cruel smile was on his lips as he looked down at his victim. "See it from the bright side. You didn´t have to take Steve´s place."

Steve took a few steps away from Wesker. He looked sickened and pale. "Why did you do that for?! And what do you want with me?! Who the hell are you?!"

Wesker just followed him, looking as arrogant as ever. "That fool had no more use to me. But you do however. I´m going to meet some… friends of mine. Including Claire Redfield."

When Steve heard Claire´s name he looked as Wesker had kicked him hard in the stomach. Then he turned grim again. "What are your plans for her?" 

Wesker stopped before him. "You don´t need to know that."

Steve narrowed his eyes. "Tough luck! When it comes to Claire and her well being, I want to know. Tell me, what are your plans for her?"

The answer came swiftly and painfully. Wesker rammed into Steve, knocking him hard into the wall. He picked Steve up by the hair and glared into his scared eyes.

"There are a lot of lessons you need to learn Steve. The first one is that you will obey my orders. You come with me, don´t ask any questions. If you follow this you´ll meet Claire again. Most of all you can see her in one piece. Understood?!"

Steve tried to break Wesker´s grip but failed miserably. _This guy can´t be human… I have to bide my time and wait for the right time. I.. I want to see Claire again. I have to play along._

"Okay. You win."

Wesker let go of him and Steve stumbled back. Now Wesker smiled down at him again but it wasn´t the same cruel smile as before. Now it looked amused. "Good. I knew you would come to your senses. Let me introduce myself, my name is Albert Wesker and I´m an old friend of Claire and her brother." The way he spoke of Claire made Steve shudder but he kept up his facade and nodded. "We´re going to meet her now. But first we´ll have to get you some clothes. After all you can´t go out like that. That wouldn´t be decent." Steve remembered now that he was naked. He suddenly felt very embarrassed. 

Wesker laughed."Oh forget that Stevey my boy, I know where we can get some clothes for you. If you just come with me I´ll show you."

Wesker opened the lab door and Steve followed.

**__**

Umbrella HQ, location unknown

"Here it is!" exclaimed Ada with triumph as she and Leon stepped into the room. Leon felt also better now that they had found the security room. But he was also bothered with the lack off guards. _Where is everybody?_ He turned to Ada. 

"Ada, there isn´t so many guards around here. Do you think it might be a trap?"

"No it´s downtime now, most guards are patrolling other areas or take a break. After all this HQ is very well hidden. The threat of an attack isn´t very big. We should be…"

Someone coughed behind them. "May I help you?" Both of them turned around, terrified that they had blown it. A guard had came up behind them and they hadn´t even heard it!

"No… Just checking." replied Ada in a more calmer voice than Leon could have mastered.

"Then I guess I finally can take my break. Thank you guys!" said the guard happily and strolled out.

Leon waited until the footsteps were out of range, then walked over to the computers and began to check them. "Boy were we lucky! Better hurry up, good luck doesn´t last forever."

"Then let´s get to work!" Ada hurried over to one of the computers. After going through the files for what Leon felt forever she finally found what she searched for. "Bingo! I´ve hacked into the security Leon! Now just give me a minute…" She turned around to face him. "I think the room a couple of doors away is a file room. Why don´t you go through some of them? Might be evidence on Umbrella´s crimes or other interesting things... In any case you won´t be bored, better get some work done."

"Will you be okay?"

"Of course."

When he turned to the door Ada called out to him again. "Hey Leon!" He turned to face her. She wore a smile. "Thanks for caring. And take good care."

"You too." He replied before going. The door shut behind him.

**__**

Secret goverment base, somewhere in the U.S.A

Sherry went after the guard that was escorting her to the diner. He wasn´t very nice company, he scoffed at her all the time. When they finally arrived, he took a tray with food, pushed her down to a chair and placed himself so he could watch her. Sherry began to eat slowly. She hated it when people stared at her while she ate but didn´t dare to irritate the guard.

"Sir! I need to talk to you!" A young soldier, probably a rookie, came in. He looked very uneasy. Her guardian scoffed at him.

"Can´t it wait? I´m busy!"

"No! You… you have to come right now!"

The grunt seemed to consider the options. He then pushed himself from the chair and glared at Sherry. "You sit here and eat your food. Don´t go ANYWHERE! If I come back and find you´re gone… you´ll regret it." With that he followed his man out.

Sherry thought it would be a very bad idea to try and eavesdrop on them. She had no doubts that the unpleasant man would carry out his threats. On the other hand, she might hear some valuable information. Maybe the information she needed to get out of this horrible place?

__

Well Claire made her way out of Raccoon City, didn´t she? With the help of Leon of course and I´m sure that other lady is as tough as them. If they could do it why wouldn´t I be able to do it? Sherry looked around her. There wasn´t so many people here now, besides none of them seemed to care about her. No one would try to stop her. If someone tried she could always say she would just go to the bathroom. She rose from her seat and walked calmly to where her watchdog and the other soldier had gone to. It didn´t take her too long to find them. They were in an empty corridor and were currently engaged in a wild discussion. 

"Sir, I´m telling you we should abondon this plan!"

The cruel man backhanded him hard. "Coward! You knew the drill from the start and you came along. Now you have to finish this! Think about what we´ll get…"

But the other soldier wasn´t calmed at all. He continued his panicked tirade, pacing back and forth. "Think about what we may LOSE! Whatever you say won´t change my mind, I won´t risk getting captured and tried for high treason for your sake. I quit!" 

The brute took out his gun and pointed it at the scared soldier. "If you chicken out now, you won´t be among the living another second. We´re too close to succeed now. I will never let a cowardly shit like you ruin my future. Before you even say that the shot will be heard, let me tell you this. The gun is equipped with a silencer, if I shoot you now no one will ever know."

The soldier broke down and started to cry. "Okay, okay. You win, I´m sorry."

"Get your ass up. Tell me now, have you heard from Nicholai?"

"Yes, but he only says that we have to wait. On the other hand I have some good news too. I´ve taken care of Thompson."

"Good. Where did you dump the body?"

The soldier looked bewildered. "Body? What do you mean?"

The other man´s eyes narrowed menacely. "You were supposed to off him! Don´t tell me you let him live! Where is he now?"

"I knocked him out, gagged and tied him up and put him in a closet in my room on this base."

If Sherry thought she had heard her cruel watchdog sound angry before, what came was a total surprise for her. The worst of it all was that the hatred, disgust and anger was so focused, it truly terrified her. He grabbed his collegue and pushed him up the wall.

"If this clumsly mistake of yours have ruined my chances with Nicholai and Umbrella, you´ll wish you were dead. And that´s before I kill you." He shoved the other man hard into the wall and let go. Sherry almost felt bad for the soldier, almost. A man might die because of him and her own "guardian". She had to get to him before they got to him. The only problem was that she didn´t know which room this Thompson was in.

"Where is your room?"

"Block A, room 7."

Sherry silently cheered. She knew where that room was, she had been in that block before. There had to be a ventilation shaft somewhere. She carefully went over to the place where she had seen one and crawled into it. 

**__**

Umbrella HQ, location unknown

Ada smiled to herself. Thanks to her tampering, the security were now down. When the attack came, Umbrella would never know what hit them. _They´ll go down with their pants down. Very fitting._ She went out of the program, closed it and rose from her seat with a happy sigh. Now she would just get Leon, they would contact the others, sabotage some more and get out. She opened the door and started down the corridor where she knew the file room were. Leon should be finished by now, hopefully. 

When she came to the file room, something inside her told her that something had gone wrong. _Please, just let Leon be safe…_ She made sure her weapon, a Browning, was ready and opened the door. The sight that met her made her gasp. All the files laid scattered on the floor. Leon was alive but he was bruised and held captive by an Umbrella soldier. 

An Umbrella soldier she knew very well. It was Hunk.

"Well, well. If it isn´t Ada Wong herself!"

Ada pointed her weapon at Hunk. "Let him go you scum!"

"Tsk, tsk! We have so lot to talk about Ada. Lower your weapon."

Ada obeyed carefully and put her hands in the air. This wasn´t the first time she´d been clumsy. It had happened in Raccoon City. But the problem this time was that Hunk was no crazy scientist and Annette never had a hostage. This time Leon´s life was at stake, and he was also very dear to her…

__

Stop it now, Ada! You can only save him if you play it cool! "Haven´t you heard Hunk? My name isn´t Ada Wong anymore."

Hunk gave a bark. "New identity AGAIN? Never would I guessed. But you´re pretty good, ms. Superspy. Unlike this little runt…"

Leon´s eyes flared. "If you hurt her I´ll…" but he was interrupted by Hunk.

"Spare me that. Your macho babble is beginning to bore me."

Ada caught Hunk´s gaze and held it. "What do you want Hunk? Shall we get down to business?"

"Thought you´d never ask Ada. Just one second." With that he quickly brought two fingers to Leon´s neck and pushed. Leon´s eyes rolled up his head and he dropped to the floor without a sound. Before Ada could move, Hunk held up a hand. "Don´t worry, he´s just blacked out. He´ll come to in a few moments."

Suddenly, her radio began to beep. She looked at Hunk who motioned her to answer. "Yes?" she asked, trying to keep any strain from being heard. It was Dan Hawkins. Wanting to hear her report, no doubt. Hunk motioned at her to continue.

"Wong here. We´re done. Over."

"Good work! The mission will continue as planned. Now it´s our turn. Thank you, over and out!" The contact was broken and Ada heard only static.

She silently swore. She had tried to give subtle hints that all was not well but Hawkins had missed them all. The team would move out – right into a trap now that Umbrella would knew exactly when to expect them.. 

Hunk obviously didn´t share her feelings. "Good work indeed, miss Wong…" He took up his own radio.

"This is Hunk. The S.T.A.R.S are on their way. Deal with them." He turned it off and tossed it aside.

"Now that´s THAT has been taken care of, there is no need for you and your little boyfriend here… Time to say goodbye!"

He pointed his weapon at Leon´s head, Ada saw her chance. Hunk had turned his attention to Leon and forgot about her. _Big mistake! _NEVER_ turn your back to your enemy!_ She swiftly kicked his leg. He screamed, dropped his weapon and threw himself at her. She gasped, she never thought he would be THIS heavy. They landed on the floor in a heap. A sudden crunching noise made Ada gasp again, this time in despair. It was the radio, her only way of contacting the others. Even if she managed to take out Hunk there was no way she could warn them. Her worry made her stronger. She backhanded Hunk when she came on top and grasped around her to try and find her gun. Despite the grim situation, she managed to smile when she felt her hand around it. She swiftly brought it to Hunk´s face, pulled the trigger and he went limp. Ada panted heavily but there was no time for rest now. She went to check on Leon and took him in her arms. She gently shook him. "Leon? Wake up Leon!"

He opened his eyes, groaning as he began to rise. "Ada? Are you okay? What happened to that Umbrella guy?!"

She helped him up. "I took care of him, but we´ve got a bigger problem now. Hawkins contacted me and Hunk forced me to make the go ahead to the rest of the team. After that he contacted his men and told them about the plan, and he tried to shoot you, but I stopped him. I took him down for good but my radio broke…" 

Leon groaned again, this time of frustation. "Damn! We have to find them. The qustion is how…"

Suddenly, Ada remembered. "Leon! We do have a chance! We have a map. All we have to do is get to the control room. If we find it we can trace them and maybe find a way to warn or help them."

"Great! Let´s go!"

TO BE CONTINUED!

__

So! Steve finally awoke! Hope you guys didn´t think I made him too out of character but then again he has been subjected to a lot of experiments, not to mention what the poor guy went through during Rockfort and Antarctica. So I would guess he isn´t quite the man he was before…And now he´s with Wesker… Poor guy! 

Another one who is in big danger is Ark, can Sherry save him? And will the S.T.A.R.S succeed despite that Umbrella know of their plans? Not to mention the spy… The next chapter should answer these questions. Hope you enjoy the story. J 


	10. Umbrella is going down

To continue the fight

By: Bloodlover

__

Disclaimer: All the characters, except for the ones I made up, and other things related to Resident Evil belong to Capcom.

A/N: Sorry for taking so much time. This is the last chapter then I´ll do an epilogue that´ll deal with the aftermath of the battle. Whatever what may happen in this… This chapter will also be longer than the previous ones. Hope you don´t think it became TOO long but I wanted to wrap it up in one chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 10- Umbrella is going down

**__**

Secret goverment base, somewhere in the U.S.A

Sherry was crawling through the ventilation shaft, very aware that she didn´t had so much time left now. She better find the room Thompson was in or he would die. She glanced up to the sign above the next shutter. 

****

Block:A:7

It was here! Sherry smiled as she carefully began to open the shutter. It fell down and she began to crawl out as fast as she could. The closet where Thompson was supposed to be locked up in stood in the upper right corner. Sherry went over and tried to open it, but the door wouldn´t open. Not that it was a big surprise she had heard the soldiers saying that it was locked after all… But there had to be way to open it.

_Wait a minute was that footsteps coming this way?!_ In that case she was out of time she had to find the key fast! She noticed that a small picture of a flower was carved in the wood. It reminded her of the doors she had seen in Raccoon City. But what did that mean? Maybe the key was hidden in a flower pot? She looked up and saw a strange flower pot in the window. She ran over and began to search it. _Please, please be here key…_ One thing she found a bit strange was that the beautiful flower was made of plastic. Sherry tested to try and pull the flower out. It let go, revealing a key at the bottom. She smiled and quickly ran over to the closet, put the key in and turned. The door opened smoothly and a tall man fell out, nearly knocking Sherry over though she managed to jump out of the way at the last minute. She untied his hands so he could stand up. Thompson rose to one knee, took out the gag from his mouth and smiled tirely at her.

"Thanks. You sure saved my life and…"

"We have to get out, the bad men are on their way…"

Sherry was interrupted as the door flew open. The big, grumpy one stood in the doorway, eyes flaming and right behind him stood the scared one. They walked into the room and shut the door behind them. The bully´s lips curled into a cruel parody at a smile, the scared one was reaching for his gun, Thompson himself stood up straight and placed himself in front of Sherry to protect her. 

"So! The little brat tried to save you? Too bad it was all in vain."

Thompson met the bully´s gaze coldly. "Hardly. She is smart and brave. More than I can say for YOU. But I´m more surprised about you `STAR´!" He had turned to the other guy. "I never thought you would betray the boss for this scum and Umbrella." 

The scared guy dropped his aim and looked ashamed. "Ark… I´m so sorry. But you have to understand…"

"Understand what?! Understand why you turned to Umbrella, an organisation dedicated to greed and death? Understand why you betrayed your friends? Why you knocked me out and stuffed me into a closet like a rag?!"

The bully broke off the arguing by walking towards Ark and Sherry. He cocked his own gun and aimed it at them."Shut up Thompson! Now I´m glad this weasel didn´t have the balls to kill you. Thanks to him I can blow you away myself. And after you that little brat."

Ark knocked down Sherry, saving them both from the first shot. But the room wasn´t big enough to move around and the door was blocked. _Sooner or later…_ thought Ark bitterly. He felt more sad that the little girl would die too, beacuse she tried to save him, than for his own sake.

But suddenly the scared soldier shook his head and attacked the bigger one. They both fell to the floor in a heap. Ark still held Sherry behind her, preparing to dive in himself. He never got the chance because suddenly two shots were heard accompied by two screams. The first was from the bully, the second one came from the other soldier.

Ark carefully walked towards the pair, motioning to Sherry to stay behind him. He knelt down by the man he´d known as STAR and turned him around. He was dying.

"Forgive me, Ark… Please…"

Ark took his friend´s hand and held it. "You saved mine and Sherry´s life. I think you have redeemed yourself."

"Thank you. It mean a lot to me… I´m sorry for what I did to you Ark… to all of you… " 

"Don´t talk now. You´re forgiven."

"I have to tell you.. one last thing. There is one more traitor in our ranks…"

Ark widened his eyes in shock. "What?! Who is…"

But the hand went limp in Ark´s hand. He carefully laid it down. There would be time for mourning later but now he had to warn the group.

"Good bye to you too. My friend…" He turned around to face Sherry. She had tears in her eyes. _Poor kid… Better take her with me to the boss. There it should be safe. At least more safer than alone in this base. What if the traitor is here? Or maybe he went with Hawkins´s team…? This is bad._

"Sherry, I´m grateful for your help. You have proved to be very brave. But I don´t want you to be alone now so I´m going to take you to my boss. There it will be safe. Do you understand?"

"Yes." She replied with a shaken but calm voice. 

**__**

Umbrella HQ, location unknown

"OK guys, this is it! We´ve got the signal. Time to party!"

The group all tensed when they heard Hawkins´s words. Emily checked her gun last time. The rest of the team did the same thing. This was after all their last chance before the final battle.

The team waited until the helicopter was near the ground. When Emily gave the signal, Donnie opened the hatch. One by one the team jumped out of the chopper. They had agreed to do this since the helicopter had to leave quickly or it might be noticed. Finally, all of them were on their way. Emily made the "go" signal to the pilot. One moment later it rose to the sky and flew away so fast it looked more like a big, black bird. They moved silently through shadows like ghosts until they reached a grey, rusty door. 

"Here´s the entrance according to our sources." whispered Dan. "So now we´ll split. This is your entrance. My team will move to the next one. We´ll regroup inside, according to the plan. Good luck!" Dan and his team quickly sneaked away.

Donnie reached for the handle but the door wouldn´t open. "Fuck! It´s locked! What will we do now…?"

Jill moved up to him. "Let me handle this." She took out her lockpick and began opening the lock. "Almost there…" The lock was released and she grinned. "Now we can enter."

Claire looked impressed. "Man that was quick! I´m not THAT good at picking locks yet."

"Practice gives experience."

Donnie whistled. "Not bad!"

Chris looked at them puzzled. "Where did you both learned this?"

"In school. Come on let´s go." Claire opened the door and moved in. Chris looked dumbfonded after her before going in. _In SCHOOL?! What else has she, and Jill, learned there? On a second thought I don´t want to know._

The corridor that they arrived in was bleak and cold. Chris could hear something dripping further down the corridor. Claire clenched her teeth.

"I´ve got a bad feeling about this. When I was walking through the RPD in Raccoon, I met a Licker after hearing that sound."

"On the other hand, maybe it´s just water dripping? It doesn´t have to mean that there are a monster there."

"That´s true, Richard, but we better be safe than sorry. Claire could you check it?"

"Sure." Claire began to walk with careful steps towards the sound. _Maybe it´s just me being paranoid but on the other hand… Well at least I have a grenade launcher. Last time all I had was a Browning handgun. Took me forever to kill it… Lost some blood too…_ She was now about to turn the corner and made sure her weapon was ready. She pressed herself up against the wall, took a deep breath and quickly turned the corner. The corridor continued straight forward and there were doors on both sides. But no monsters in sight she sighed with relief. 

That was when she heard a wheezing sound. Claire ran forward a few steps and pointed her weapon at the ceiling. A Licker hung there. After seeing her it dropped down on her. _So I was right after all. Well it´s a good thing I loaded the grenade launcher with acid rounds!_

"Come on, freak!" She managed to nail it with a grenade just before it hit the ground. It screamed and tried to get up but Claire was too fast for it. The second grenade hit it´s target and the licker laid finally still. The others had now come up to her and they looked worried.

"Claire are you alright?!" aked her brother frantically. Claire laughed, a short, cocky one.

"I´m always fine when I have this baby. Thanks for your concern but now I have some battle experience." _Unlike before._ But Claire knew that if she had said it, it would had made Chris feel guilty for her experiences when she was looking for him so she kept silent.

Emily walked past them. "Good to see that you´re well Claire. But the question is where do we go from here? We can´t afford to stay in one place for too long. Someone may have heard the shots…"

"Maybe the last one?" 

The team never got the chance to chose, because suddenly the door blew open. Nicholai stood there, with a lot of Umbrella soldiers.

"DAMN! How did they knew we were here?!"

"No time for that now, RUN!"

All of them only got a split second to decide what do do. They all managed to dive into the side doors right before the gunfire. All except for Claire, the fire cut off her escape. When Jill was about to close the door behind them she saw Claire´s predictament.

"CLAIRE!" The young woman threw herself at the other woman, making them fall into the opposite door which closed behind them. Chris´s face was totally white with fear. He was about to run back into the corridor but Richard stopped him. 

"Let go of me!"

"No. We have to move on or we all die." said the other man and looked down on the other. Chris clenched his fists and seemed to want to go through Richard and the door.

"In case you haven´t noticed it, these two are all I have left!"

"I know. One thing I also know is that they both managed to get themselves into safety. And according to their past experiences they should be fine together. We´ll probably find a way to reunite later. But for now we have to get out of here."

As if on cue more shots were heard. 

"Do you think they´ll try to shoot down the walls?" asked Donnie.

Emily started to walk. "A big possibility so we have to move fast. Let´s take roll call shall we? I´m here and so are Chris, Richard, Barry, Carlos and Donnie."

"And me." It was Rebecca. 

"That means only Jill and Claire are missing. But the team is still divided…" 

"All of us are alive and we can always come back for them later. It´s also possible that Dan and his team will get them out." said Richard.

"Yes, I hope so." Chris´s reply didn´t sound very hopeful but he walked away with the rest of the team.

__

Divide and conquer. Chris knew these words and was sure the others knew them as well. No one spoke them. All they could do was going on. 

*****************************************

"Claire are you alright?"

Claire looked up at the person who shook her. It was Jill who carefully helped the younger woman up.

"We have to keep moving! Are you alright?!"

"Yes! But where are the others?"

They started to move toward a door they saw at the end of the small corridor.

"I think they all got away, but now we have to keep moving. If we stay here…"

They started to move down the corridor fast, but when they got to the end of it they discovered that they were trapped. The room they had arrived in was some kind of computer room.

Claire walked up to one of the desks that were in the room and kicked at it.

"SHIT! We´re trapped!"

Jill just looked at her. She had been close to death before, but to die like this… _It´s not fair…_

*****************************************

Nicholai frowned. Things like this annoyed him. They managed to divide the S.T.A.R.S yes, but not kill anyone. He especially wanted to kill Carlos and that Valentine woman. His gaze turned to where Valentine and Chris´s Redfield´s little sister had disappeared into. His men had tried to break it down but it was made of tough material. _Reinforced steel or something like that. In any case we can´t waste time here. We´ll get to those too, we just chase after the rest…_

"Okay, that´s enough! We can´t waste time here!"

One of his soldiers was working with the door that Redfield and the rest had slunk into."Sir! I think I can get this door open!"

"Do it then you fool!"

The soldier did something with the doorlock. A click was heard and the door opened. _Well finally things will go my way._ thought Nicholai when he went through the door.

When the door closed after the last of Nicholai´s soldiers, the door next to it opened with a similar sound to the last one. Ada carefully peaked her head out and when she saw it was clear, she gave Leon the signal.

"It´s clear."

"Good. But it was a close call!"

"Yes I know Leon. Just hope our luck doesn´t run out." Ada turned her eyes to the door that the grunts had fought to break down. "They sure wanted to come in there. I wonder what´s inside. But since they couldn´t enter…"

"That´s because THEY didn´t know what to do. All they resorted to was violence." She gave him a crooked smile and walked to the door. She carefully ran her fingers over the frame. Leon frowned. Was Ada going crazy or something…? But suddenly, when he was about to tell her they were wasting time, the door popped open.

"Whoa! How did you do that?"

Ada smiled at him. "I´m a spy remember? One of my assignments was finding out Umbrella´s weapons and technology."

"Good for us!"

"This door technology of them is pretty new. You can´t open it with force but push the right places…"

Leon frowned. "On the other hand, how come the soldiers didn´t know about this way to open it?"

"It´s a new technology and not very tested. Only a few people know of this and since Umbrella obviously don´t bother to inform their people what they don´t need to know at the moment…"

"Yeah that´s right! Umbrella is a bunch of fools I forgot that."

They started to walk down the corridor. When they came to the door at the end, Leon moaned.

"Not ANOTHER goddamn door!"

Ada felt on the doorknob. The door opened, giving them a perfect view of the room.

Claire and Jill had decided not to lock the door. As Claire said there was no need to lock it, if the Umbrella troops managed to break down the first door, which was more stronger, then they would break down the second too. Instead they let the door be unlocked, if intruders came, they would be able to ambush and maybe use the door as some kind of weapon. Like throwing it into the face of an Umbrella soldier for example... Even if it was a longshot it was better than nothing. When they heard the footfalls in the corridor they hid, checking their weapons. They were truly surprised when the door opened and they saw the people that had arrived.

"Who are you?! I know you Leon but who is she?" asked Jill.

The woman held up a hand. "My name is Ada Wong. I´m here with Leon…"

"Yes, we both know him." Both of the women nodded to Leon. Claire continued. "But who are you?"

"Like I said, my name is Ada Wong and I´m an ally of Leon´s."

Jill suddenly understood. "You must be Leon´s contact!"

"That´s right."

"So what are we going to do? The troops outside must be gone otherwise you wouldn´t be so calm. Me and Claire got seperated from the others, we should go after them."

Ada shook her head as she was going over to the computers. "No We have a better plan. This is the control room. We should be able to trace the others this way."

"Good idea! And maybe we can find a way to avoid Nicholai´s troops."

Chris clenched his jaw. He never liked elevators. Not at all. After his experiences with Umbrella and it´s labs his dislike grew even more. Something ALWAYS happened. _For example some monster popping up. Or perhaps the elevator stops and you don´t know when or even IF it will start again._

"Shouldn´t we soon be there?!"

Emily looked at him. "We´ll get out soon, it´s only a matter of time. In any case we don´t have much of a choice. There is only one stop and that´s where we going."

Donnie sighed. "I understand how you feel Chris. The face that´s it´s only one stop makes me even worrier."

Richard drew in air fast. "Heads up folks. I have a feeling that we´ll soon stop."

The elevator stopped with a jerk that almost knocked them over. Donnie looked at Richard with awe. "Are you a physic or something? You really scare me sometimes."

Richard just shrugged. "No, just gut feelings. When you´ve become as old as I am you´ll have it too."

"Ha,ha! Very funny."

The team carefully stepped out of the elevator. The first one to notice the danger was Chris. He saw a little camera coming at them and knew right away what it was, he knew about them from Rockfort and Antarctica.

"Watch out!"

Too late, the camera´s beam had already fixed itself on Carlos. The light turned red and an alarm started. Carlos looked at his friends with fear clearly written on his face. 

"Guys… what was that?!"

"Just be ready for anything!" shouted Chris back. _The attack will come at any second now. Don´t have time to explain._ Fortnately all of his team was experienced soldiers so they knew the situation had turned dangerous. All waited with weapons ready breathing deeply. Farther away they could hear something growling and heavy footsteps. 

The team froze with their weapons drawn. Chris was reminded by all the stalker movies he´d seen. He knew Umbrella had created stalker monsters before, Jill had run into one of them in Raccoon City and he had heard about Leon´s run in with the one called Mr X. _It´s a stalker but I bet it will look like the other freaks._

Chris knew he´d been right when the monster finally came into view. It was towering over them and was walking on two legs. The strange thing was that the legs seemed weak and frail. On the other hand it didn´t mean that they were frail. Two arms were stretched out towards the group. It looked like it tried to grasp them. Instead of fingers it had claws, claws made of organic material instead of metal. That was all they could see of the thing´s body, it had a coat on. 

"Fuck! It looks just like that Nemesis-freak me and Jill ran into! But it wasn´t THIS scary!" There was an underlying tone of fear in Carlos´s voice, it bordered on hysteria. Chris couldn´t see how his own face looked like but suspected it looked like the other man´s. He knew he felt more and more scared. His friends looked very afraid too. _Clever of them. Playing on typical fears…_ He shook himself, they needed to open fire before things turned worse. Chris pulled the trigger to the magnum and the shot hit the stalker right in the chest. The thing was pushed back a bit but it still kept going forward, slowly like a killer from a horror movie. It knew it´s prey couldn´t escape it so it could take it´s time.

Barry, Richard and Emily were also firing their weapons but their shots had as much effect as Chris´s. On the other hand they fared better than Carlos, Rebecca and Donnie. Their weapons didn´t even seem to faze the monster. It was now only a few steps away. It looked like it picked up some speed now that it was so close to it´s prey.

The team had no choice than to back up while firing. Emily clenched her jaw.

"We can´t keep this going forever. We are cornered. Okay listen up, this is the plan! You guys keep firing, I´ll be the bait!"

"No fucking way Emily!" exclaimed Donnie. The rest of her comrades gave similar comments but she silenced them with a stare. 

"No time for that, just do as I tell you!"

The former captain for the U.B.C.S fired two shots directly at the stalker. It was pushed back for a moment but that was just the time Emily needed to roll under it and coming back to her feet right after.

"Hey freak! Look, now you´re surrounded!"

__

It looked more like a cop trying to get the bad guy to stop! Thought Carlos with amusement. The next thing that happened, quickly erased his smile. The monster did turn against Emily, just as she had planned. What she hadn´t planned was that it attacked her with more feriousity than ever. She frantically tried to dodge it attacks but the stalker finally grabbed her. The claws made bloody stripes along Emily´s arm and she let out a horrified scream.

"Let her go you freak show!" screamed Donnie in fear and anger as he kept firing with his rifle. The others fired with him at the thing´s back. It roared and threw Emily a couple of feet away. She landed in a heap. As she began to rise the thing lifted it´s left claw and slashed at her exposed back. 

"NNOOO!!!" screamed Donnie and the others as one. He ran forward as the others shot the monster and he managed to get to Emily. He held her tightly as if he thought he alone could hold her to life.

"Don´t worry Emily just rest. Becky can…." She shushed him.

"These…are…mortal..wounds Donnie. Too… late for…me…" He was about to interrupt her but she continued. "I… just had an… idea how…to beat this monster…" Behind him he heard Chris scream.

"See? You´ll all… die… let me… help you… one last… time…" Donnie nodded. She was right, as she always had been.

"Remember… it has weak legs…. Weak point…Hurt the legs then… you should be able to defeat… it."

"Thank you Emily. As soon as we beat it we´ll get you treatment."

She smiled, a smile filled with sorrow. "You were always a sweet kid Martin. Take down Umbrella for me. For our friends. Farewell…." Emily´s head fell back and a shadow fell over her eyes. She was dead. Donnie put her down and turned around with his rifle drawn. He saw the stalker was about to deliver another death blow, this time to Chris. 

"Forget it you fucking freak!" He opened fire but this time at the legs. The stalker stopped it´s attack and fell to it´s knees. It was screaming in pain. Emily had been right!

"Come on now don´t just stand there! Kill it!" All of them charged at the creature together. Shot after shot punched into it´s skin and it roared, finally it let out one last cry and fell down. Black liquid began to pour out under it. Blood. They all let out a collective sigh, a sigh that had both sorrow and relief in it. They were relieved that they had managed to kill the stalker but they were also grieving over Emily´s death. Rebecca knelt by her body. 

"Farewell Emily." She then gently placed her fingers on Emily´s eyelids and slowly closed them. The rest of the group payed their respects to their dead friend while Rebecca quickly tended to their wounds. Overall most of them was okay. Except for Emily, Chris had been the only one to suffer major damage. As they began to move again Carlos couldn´t help but wondering how lucky they had been. But if Emily hadn´t made her move he was sure all of them would be dead. Still if they had thought about it earlier maybe Emily would have been alive… Carlos shook his head. He couldn´t keep thinking about how things could have worked out it was too late to change the past. And they were still in danger.

The corridor stretched out before them, it was long and the walls seemed to be made of cold steel. They shimmered in the dim light. A door could be seen at the end.

"Great. I bet it´ll need a card key to open." muttered Richard under his breath.

But when they came closer they saw it was in OPEN mode.

"What is this?! I have a bad feeling about this." Chris sounded worried. "Here we are in the main HQ of Umbrella and security is this lazy?! Even if Dan and his men managed to take out guards, defeating monsters and maybe even open a few locks… it shouldn´t just be this easy even though we had to battle a Stalker."

"On the other hand Chris, maybe this IS Dan´s work and he´s waiting for us to regroup inside? There is only one way unless you want to go back and run into Nicholai and his troops?"

Chris nodded relucantly. "I see your point. Fine, but if our work is done we still have to find Jill and Claire. I´m not going without them and that´s final."

"Whatever you say Redfield." Richard pushed the button to open the door. It slid up with a wheezing sound. The team went inside, only to be horrified with what they saw.

Dan Hawkins was dead. His insides had been ripped out, and he had also been shot. He wasn´t alone though, his men laid sprawled across the room the group had now entered, a huge laboratory. It looked like a version of hell. The only one standing was one man, Gilbert Masters. He had a gun pointed in their direction. 

"Masters! What has happened here?!" Barry looked straight at the other man, who just grinned at them. Before anyone could react, the door behind them slid down and a clicking sound was heard. They had been locked inside.

"Did you do this?!" asked Chris angrily. "Let us out!"

"Chris, calm down. It was you wasn´t it?" Richard stared at Gilbert with a look of pure hatred. "It was really a spy and it was you all along."

The traitor laughed. "Yes. No surprise that I managed to fool the S.T.A.R.S and the rest of your crew, but I´m especially disappointed with you Richie. I thought you were supposed to be the expert on finding traitors but you have grown rusty. And before you ask it was me who has been setting up traps for you all those months."

"Why?"

" `Why´? That question sure is popular… I did it for money you fool! What other motive would I have?"

Carlos glared at the traitor. "It was you who betrayed the survivors of the U.B.C.S too, correct?" When Gilbert nodded, he took a step forward clenching his hand. "You… you and Nicholai… you killed practically all my friends. And for money." He was interrupted by a shot. Gilbert had fired a bullet right in front of him. Rebecca gasped. She was reminded by a similar situation when Wesker had shot her right in the chest at the Spencer mansion. She too had acted just like Carlos had now. It was only her bullet proof vest that had saved her life, still she had felt pain when the bullet struck her down.

"Spare me your blabbing please! Yes it was me all along."

"Was it you who made Jill go into the Umbrella HQ so she got caught?" Chris´s voice was cool but his eyes burned.

"No of course not stupid, that was another spy. You should know him, STAR." Now it was Chris´s turn to gasp but Gilbert didn´t stop. "In any case now I should have covered everything. Now it´s time for you to die!" He went over to a console, still holding the gun at them, and pushed a button. A roaring could be heard in the distance.

"Now if you excuse me I have a boat to catch. You on the other hand will meet the same fate as poor Hawkins and his men here…" He went over to a door in the back, still holding his gun at them, and went through it. 

"Farewell you fools!" The door closed, separating the traitor from the S.T.A.R.S. 

"WAIT!" roared Carlos and threw himself at the door but it wouldn´t move. 

Chris ran over to the console, thinking there might be some way to open the door but it remained closed. To make things worse a capsule had came up through the floor. Inside, something roared and tried to crack it open.

"Great! Everyone stay clear of it!" All of them spread out to avoid being in the way when the creature finally got out.

************************************************

Meanwhile the others in the control room had finally managed to locate their friends and they saw what predictament they were in.

"Oh shit…" was all Claire said but her face was pale. The information on the new B.O.W´s had said the new monsters were practically impossible to defeat. They had been especially enhanced in order to deal with intruders. Ada frowned but kept pushing buttons, entering commands. _Dan and the others dead… There MUST be a way to get the survivors out…_ Suddenly a menu popped up.

"What´s this?" asked Leon and looked over her shoulder to read the text. "Anti B.O.W gas… Used in emergencies. Caution is advised since it´s effects are still unknown." 

"We can use this to weaken the creature so they can kill it!" exclaimed Claire happily and Jill looked positive, Leon on the other hand looked worried. "It also says it orginated from the Pepsilon gas. I found a document in the lab in Raccoon. It weakened some of the monsters but at the same time it made others stronger. Another risk was that during time, they would gain immunity to the gas. We have no idea if this creature would be weakened or strengthened by this gas. And what if there is effects to humans, negative effects?" Silence fell over them. What was worse, to see their friends go to a possible death without doing anything, or release a gas with unknown side effects on them? After a short period, Ada broke the silence.

"We may be able to contact them. That is if this communications device works…" She flipped a switch and spoke into the microphone before her.

"Alpha team do you read me?" The one who was nearest the camera, Chris, turned around. He looked surprised.

__

"Who is it?"

"My name isn´t important right now. I´m at the control room with a couple of your friends We have the option of releaseing a gas that might weaken the monster. On the other hand there is also a chance that it might strengthen it or that the side effects may be harmful to you. What is your suggestion?" 

Chris looked as if he was in deep thought. He was interrupted by the creature breaking out of it´s capsule. It looked like an hideous frog crossed with a lizard. It screamed, a horrifying sound that made some of the team to cover their ears. Barry, Richard and Carlos started to fire into it´s skin but it made no difference, the creature still kept up it´s pace. It started to swing it´s arms menacing. Chris turned quickly to the camera.

__

"It may be a risk but it looks like we don´t have a choice. Go ahead. And cross your fingers!"

"Got it." Ada took a deep breath and flipped another switch. A green, thick gas began to seep into the room. Chris and the others covered their mouths and noses as best as they could while jumping clear of the attacks. Jill noticed that the monster were as fast as the Nemesis had been. The only chance Chris and the others had was the gas. Bullets and grenades hadn´t stopped the Nemesis, only the Rail Cannon had been powerful enough and she couldn´t see one at the monitor. _Please, let it work…_

Suddenly, the creature stopped it´s rampage and screamed. Chris and the rest held their breath and waited. The monster went down. Their gamble had been successful it was weakening the monster. All of them began to fire at it, finally it gave out one final scream and fell down in a gush of blood.

******************************'

"We did it!" screamed Chris. He turned to his friends. "How are you guys?" They nodded at him, all doing the "everything-is-okay" sign..

"I think we´ll be okay." said Rebecca. "If there is any side effects that hasn´t yet shown… We´ll deal with them later."

Chris turned to the camera again. "Did you hear that?" No answer. Chris felt dread coming up but he fought it back and called out yet again. Still there was no answer…

Ada, Leon, Jill and Claire all glared at the door. In the doorway, grinning, stood Albert Wesker pointing a gun at them.

"Cut off the mic." Ada flipped the switch. "Good. It´s strange to meet you two, Kennedy and Wong or whatever your name is now." His gaze turned to Claire and Jill. Both women looked defiant and scared at the same time. They had both run into Wesker before and knew what he was capable of. "Always a pleasure to see you too Jill. You survived your encounter with the Hunters." At that Jill took one step back, remembering being captured, interrogated and nearly killed. "And of course you Claire. I know you hate me, but look at whom I brought along just for your sake." He stepped forward and made a gesture. Another person followed. It was Steve Burnside. Claire gasped and without thinking she had taken a few steps towards the men.

"S-steve. You´re alive…" Despite their predictament a smile crept over her face. Steve looked back at her.

"Claire…" Before they could run to each other, Wesker stopped Steve.

"Spare me the sappy reunion scene please. Steve, now it´s time to do your job. And you too Nicholai." He made another gesture and Nicholai stepped in.

"I left my soldiers outside as you ordered."

"Good. You Nicholai will make sure Kennedy and Wong doesn´t do any funny things. However they aren´t that important so if they make too much trouble you may shoot them. As for you Steve, you´ll keep an eye on miss Redfield. I´ll take the lovely miss Valentine for myself." Steve looked at Wesker with hate in his eyes.

"What are you going to do with them?!"

For a moment silence fell over the room. Leon and Ada watched, holding their breath. Jill and Claire looked even more scared, especially Claire. _What will happen? What will Steve do? I would hate to see him as Wesker´s pawn but on the other hand… if he resists Wesker would probably kill him._ That would be even more terrible. Wesker smiled at Steve like a predator.

"My dear Steve just do as I say and everything will go well. If you disobey me all of you will die. Including your beloved Claire." Steve hung his head in defeat. 

"Claire, I´m sorry…"

"No it´s okay. It´s not your fault it´s Wesker´s." She stepped over to Steve, letting him grab her arms, and looked Wesker straight in the eye. This was the monster who had betrayed her brother and his friends, beaten her up at Rockfort, later took her as a hostage in Antarctica and had taken Steve to use as a guinea pig. Now he forced Steve to co-operate with him, like he had forced Barry in the Spencer mansion. Chris had told her that.

"So what now? Let me guess, you´ll use us as baits, correct?"

Wesker grinned down at her. "You´ve always been so smart. Yes you´ll be baits, with the help of you two I´ll kill Chris." When both of the women gasped he laughed. "Just imagine. The two people he loves in my grasp. He sure will suffer. And then he´ll die. Ha, ha, ha! Excellent plan, right?!" With that he gave Steve a push, urging him to go forward. Claire was dragged out, still glaring at Wesker. He smiled back at her and took a firm grasp at Jill´s arm and dragged her along too. "We have a meeting with Chris and we shouldn´t let him wait." Nicholai followed, holding the helpless Leon and Ada at gunpoint. 

"Something is wrong…" muttered Chris. They still hadn´t figured out how to get out, they were locked inside. And since the person who had helped them in the fight against the monster hadn´t said or done anything it meant that something must have happened. _And we can´t do ANYTHING to help! This is so frustrating! And dangerous too. What if we are stuck here for good? What if Masters has set a self destruct to blow the whole place up?_

"Hey, it looks like someone is opening the door!" shouted Carlos. All of them stared at the door. They could hear the lock release, the door began to slide up. Despite that they would now finally get out, there was a strong feeling of danger. When the door had opened, he knew that his hunch had been correct.

Wesker came in first, holding Jill captive. Right after him came a young man holding Claire by the arms. Lastly came the one called Nicholai holding Leon and another woman at gun point. "Hello everyone!" grinned Wesker. Chris draw his weapon at Wesker, his friends following his move. Wesker shook his head. "And here I thought you finally had grown some brains Chris. I have hostages, drop your weapons all of you or they´ll die."

__

DAMN! Chris hated situations like these. Especially with lunatics like Wesker. But he would not dare disobeying him, or people would die. Among them his sister and girlfriend.

He dropped his wepon. "Everyone do as he says!" He heard his friends dropping their weapons. "Alright we´ve done as you said, now let them go Wesker!"

The traitor grinned at him. "Okay, since I´m feeling so generous I´ll let your TEAM go. But you stay here Chris. And my lovely hostages so that you´ll behave." Behind him he heard his entire team gasp. " Oh come ON! I want to make up all the bad things I´ve done to you. Barry, I let you live because of forcing you to betray your friends, Rebecca I know it wasn´t nice of me to shoot you, the rest of you… well I haven´t really done you anything but I´ll give your lives to you as a bonus."

"Don´t you have a debt to Chris, Jill and Claire? And you should let Leon and his friend go too!" asked Barry angrily.

Wesker returned the anger with his own. "Don´t test me Barry, if you do you´ll die."

"Barry it´s okay. Just go I´ll be fine." Chris knew Wesker would back stab them. On the other hand they had to play along for the time being. "Wesker this thing is between you and me. Let Claire, Jill and the others go!"

Wesker tsked. "Redfield, this is my offer. Take it or leave it."

Chris closed his eyes. What should he do? _I´ll take it. At least Barry and the rest will be safe. At least from Wesker. The person he hates the most is me. I´ll make sure he remembers it and leave the others alone. As for Jill and Claire I protect them. Somehow. _He opened his eyes, his choice was made. "Okay Wesker. Barry, all of you get out!"

Wesker smiled in triumph. "Good, very good." He took a control pad from his pocket and pushed a button. The door that Masters had disappeared into opened. Barry took one last look at Chris. Then he motioned to the others too go. Chris watched as his friends walked through the door. He hoped they would be okay, but they really didn´t have any choice. The door closed.

"Okay Wesker. You got what you wanted. Your problem is with me so leave the rest out of it! Let them go!"

"Not so fast Chris. Those two…" he gestured to Leon and Ada. "will be witnesses of your death. And I have some questions for them. After all they can give me vital information about the goverment. If they don´t talk by their free will I´ll GET them to tell me." Both Leon and Ada managed to stay cool but Chris could see the fear in their eyes. They all know what Wesker talked about. Torture. _That won´t happen guys. We´ll get out of this._ "But first I´ll make sure you´ll regret the day you stepped in my path."

"Why don´t you just cut the crap and fight! It´s me you want and here I am." Chris knew it was risky but he wanted Wesker´s attention to be fixed on him alone. His adversary smiled like a cruel predator, ready to take down it´s prey.

"You sure got balls Chris! Okay then. I´ll let those two see you die. And you´ll know what will happen to them afterwards." Wesker tossed Jill over to Nicholai. The U.B.C.S leader let his men guard Leon and Ada and kept his weapon at Jill. Steve held on to Claire, an expression of raw pain on his face. "And to make it more exciting here´s what I´ll do." Wesker walked over to the console and pushed a few buttons. 

"Self destruction will begin count down."

__

Damn. That was all Chris had the chance to think before Wesker´s fist connnected with his jaw, sending him sprawling to the ground. Jill and Claire screamed his name. Their captors restrained them although Steve wasn´t as brutal to Claire as Nicholai was to Jill. Chris rose slowly. He HAD to win this time! He managed to evade Wesker´s blows by good reflexes and, he had to admit, good luck. Sadly his good luck ran out. Wesker had him against one of the corners and rammed his fist into his stomach, Chris doubled over, gasping. _No this can´t be the end oh please no…_ He heard a chuckle over him. Wesker grabbed him by the hair and forced his head up so that their faces was just inches away from each other. Despite his hazy sight he could see the smile Wesker gave him. God he hated that smile! 

"So this is the end for you Chris. But I have to say that you was better than last time we met. Sadly for you it was not enough!" With that he delivered one final blow to his defeated opponent.

"NNOOO!!!" It was Jill and Claire. Both women fell back as if it had been them and not Chris who had suffered Wesker´s beating. Jill looked like her heart had been broken while Claire just shook her head in denial, tears running freely from her face.

"Damn you Wesker!"

Wesker went to them, chuckling. "He´s dead. Now is the question, which of you will I kill first…?" He walked over to where Jill was being held by Nicholai and yanked her away from him with a hard jerk. She stared at him with tears in her eyes, but also with defiance. She would never beg for mercy from him. _Brave girl!_ Wesker was amused this was just like Jill.

"I think I start with you." He slapped her hard across the face, ignoring the angry cries from Claire and the others. Jill´s nose and mouth began to bleed but the look in her eyes remained as determined as she began to defend herself. Wesker struck again and again, even though Jill got in a few hits she was struck down just like Chris. Wesker looked down at his defeated enemy. She looked back at him with hate in her eyes.

"Not so lucky this time miss Valentine? This time Chris is not here to save you. But don´t worry you´ll meet soon. In hell." 

"The only one who´ll burn in hell is you Wesker." She spat.

"Oh yeah? We´ll see about that…"

Wesker was about to deliver the death blow, but a cry interrupted him.

"STOP!"

It was Steve. 

Wesker frowned, irritated. "What is it Steve?!"

"You stop this . Right now."

"Why?"

"Why?! Do you really need to ask that? You´re sick I wish that I never followed you."

Wesker sneered this time. "And the reason why you did it? Because of Claire. Speaking of her I think I kill her now. Jill can wait for the time being." But before he could get a chance to grab Claire, Steve gave him a hard shove. "I don´t believe this. But all right Burnside you asked for it!" Wesker rammed his fist into Steve, sending the young man flying. He landed hard.

"Steve…" Claire was frozen with fear. And even if she wasn´t, she couldn´t just run and leave her friends. Besides the doors were locked. Steve rose, unlike Chris and Jill he wasn´t totally human anymore. Wesker had told him about the side effects of the virus that they had injected him with to revive him. _Does that mean I´m a.. monster a BOW?! I don´t want that but if it can help me save Claire then I can live with it!_

" I should have done this earlier. Now I´ll correct that mistake."

"I see… So you actually have balls. Never could I have guessed that… Nicholai keep an eye on Claire. I´ll deal with Super Boy here." Wesker charged Steve but this time his intended victim managed to get away. The following second, Steve had struck at Wesker hard. The red eyed man glared at the younger man. He had thought Steve was just a weakling, someone he could use as a puppet. That had changed now.

Ada looked on the two fighting men. She couldn´t help feeling admiration for Steve. The young man was just a teenager, and an untrained one. Yet he managed to stand his ground against someone who, except for his super abilities, was a trained soldier. If Steve could win they would have a better chance of getting out alive. If Steve beat Wesker they only had to take out Nicholai. _In any event some commotion could help Steve a little. It may distract Wesker. _But there was another reason. Ada Wong NEVER went down without a fight. When and if Wesker killed Steve he would go after them all. He wanted them all dead, unless the count down ended and they were blown up.

__

If we´re going to die then we might as well go down fighting!

She carefully caught Leon´s gaze and he looked back at her. A quick nod, he knew. The only thing that was left to decide was WHEN to strike. The opportunity arose the moment later. Wesker was about to pin down Steve and had his back to the others. Claire was screaming, Nicholai and his grunts had their full attention on her. Ada thought they soon had to TIE the girl down. But if things would go well there would be no "soon". At least not for Wesker and his gang. She caught Leon´s gaze again. _Now!_ They had to be fast. Ada spun around and delivered a powerful kick at the nearest soldier while at the same time shoving her elbow into the stomach of another of his friends. They both fell to the floor. Leon managed to take down a couple more. He then gave Nicholai a hard slap at the head and while he was distracted, got his gun back. This also allowed Claire to break free and take the Umbrella soldier´s own gun. She hit him on the head with the butt of the gun and he fell to join his mates. In a matter of seconds, Leon, Ada and Claire had taken down the Umbrella goons. Wesker, who was about to finish Steve turned around, allowing his opponent to get the upper hand. Steve threw Wesker to the floor with an angry roar. This man, this _creep_, had threatened Claire, murdered her brother and his girlfriend, and had used him as a pawn. And this was just the sins Steve knew about. _If I had resisted Wesker back there, Claire´s brother and his girlfriend might have been alive now. On the other hand he might as well killed me and these events would still had occured. In any event I´ll end it now!_ Steve grabbed a sharp piece of metal that had been torn off in the battle and cut Wesker across the throat. The man gave out one last strangled cry…

Then he went limp. It was over.

Steve felt sick. Yes, it was self defense, yes Wesker had wanted to kill them all. But this… Steve had never done anything like this. He had killed a lot of monsters but this was a human. On the other hand could you call Wesker human? He had bragged about not being human and about having super powers. But still…

__

In any event, you did it to defend Claire and yourself and these other people. And to get revenge for the ones he had killed. Now you have to get out before you all get blown up! He looked at Claire. She had gone up to him, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"We have to get out."

"Yes I know."

Leon went over to Chris. He was about to close the man´s eyes in respect when he saw that Chris still breathed. Slowly but he was still alive. 

"Hey! He´s still alive!"

Ada look surprised. "What?" 

"Yes. Take care of him Ada. I ´ll check Jill out." Leon wasn´t too optimistic about her chances too survive either. She hadn´t moved at all during the fight between Steve and Wesker but he had to check. Carefully, he put two fingers on her neck to feel the eventual pulse. _Yes! There is a pulse, she´s not dead yet! Just have to keep her alive then…_ Leon began first-aid. He only had one spray left but considered it a fair sacrifice if it meant saving Jill´s life. Her heartbeats came steadier, regular now. Her eyes slowly opened.

"What..?" Leon helped her sit up and hugged her lightly. _Calm her or she´ll go into chock._ "You´re alive Jill."

Ada had her hands full with Chris, who looked as shocked as Jill. "Jill Claire… Are they alright."

"Yes." Before Ada had the chance to say anything more Claire had thrown herself at her brother. Leon and Jill joined them and after releasing Claire, Chris embraced Jill. The two didn´t say anything they just held each other.

Meanwhile, after seeing that Jill and Chris were alive, Steve went to the door where Wesker had forced the rest of the gang to go. They needed to regroup and get out fast. The problem was how they would open the door? He decided to check Wesker´s corpse and slowly walked to it. He was reminded by the horror movies when the killer always came back to life. _Hope it won´t happen he has to be dead…_ Carefully Steve began his search and found the control pad that Wesker had used. He stood up, pointed the control pad at the door and pushed the button. The door opened and Barry and the others nearly fell into the room. 

"Thank God! You´re all alive!"

Claire walked over to Steve and put her arm around him. "Yes. Steve killed Wesker and opened the door."

Barry looked at Steve, clearly impressed. "YOU killed Wesker? Are you Superman or something?" 

Before Steve had the chance to answer, however, Rebecca interrupted him. "You can tell us later. We have found a way out of here. And…" She waved a computer disc. "… we found the evidence we´ll need to take down Umbrella for good! And after their HQ is finished…"

Carlos grabbed her and began to drag her through the door. "Tell them on the way out of here Becky!" His eyes suddenly fell on a small set of monitors. "Guys look!" 

It showed a lot of monsters, Hunters, Tyrants and worse, prowling through the HQ. Ada and Leon exchanged a look, then turned to the others.

"We had a sub, but getting to it has become an impossibility now we don´t have that firepower. And even if we could it only have room for two persons." The rest of the message was unspoken, there was no way they would anyone behind. The only way out was keep on going.

While the group ran down the corridor, Rebecca explained what had happened. After being forced out of the lab by Wesker, they had found a computer terminal. While trying to get back into the lab they had also found valuable information about Umbrella, good evidence of what the company had done and what they had planned. That information had been copied to a disc which was now in Rebecca´s possesstion. 

At last they reached the exit. It looked like some sort of harbor. A big boat was docked and it looked like it could hold several persons, which was good. At a distance they could see a big gate. _We have to open it first. And start up the boat._ Carlos took a few steps towards the it and adresses his comrades. "We should split up into two groups. The first one check the boat and prepare for taking off. The other one finds a way to open that gate."

They set up the groups fast. The first one was consisted of Donnie, Carlos, Rebecca, Barry and Richard. The rest began to search through the hangar, quickly since the time was running out. 

After an eternity it seemed, Jill cried out. She had found the switch. Since she was a machine expert it was basically child´s play to get the gate powered up. Jill entered a command and slowly the big, sturdy gate began to open. Claire was impressed by this woman. _No wonder my brother like her so much! Not just a pretty face, she got some brains too. Now we just have to get out of here…_ Her trail of thought was interrupted when she stumbled over something. She hit the ground hard. Steve ran over to her.

"Claire! Are you alright?!" He helped her up while checking her for any injuries. Even though Claire appriciated the concern, she was more worried about their situation when she saw what she had stumbled over.

It was the mangled remains of Gilbert Masters.

She heard Steve gasping, he had seen it too. Suddenly she thought it was strange that no one of them had wondered why the boat was still there if Masters had gotten away. He sure wouldn´t have left a boat for them. Steve spoke first. "Claire we have to warn the others!" Her only reply was a nod. 

"Chris!" He looked up. Claire and Steve was running like hell. Something must have happened. "What?"

"We just found Masters. He´s dead. And not just dead, we´re talking about CRUSHED… It must have been a BOW." 

"Great. I hope the others has managed to get the boat up and running." Jill looked as scared as Claire felt. They all ran to the boat. Barry and Rebecca stood waiting.

"Here you are. Looks like we´re ready to go."

Chris nearly knocked them down. " Good. Because we have to go NOW!" 

They quickly regrouped in the cabin. Donnie were at the helm. He carefully steered the boat toward the opening gate. They couldn´t waste any time but they also had to be careful so that they didn´t go straight into the gate. A female voice cooly informed them that they only had five minutes left until self destruct. When they were only halfway to the gate they were suddenly being pulled back.

"What is this?!" exclaimed Barry furiously. They were so close!

Richard ran out to the deck. "A monster is pulling us back!"

All of them, except for Donnie, followed. The monster looked like a madman´s vision of an octopus. _So this is what killed Masters…_Claire couldn´t help but feeling a bit sympathy for the man, even though he had betrayed them. Just the thought of being killed by that…

The ones who had firepower left used it up now, making the monster release the boat. A "thank you" from Donnie was heard. 

The gate was nearly open by now. If they could just get through it before getting seized by the monster again… 

"One minute to self destruction. Evacuate immidatley!"

The monster was hard on their heels and if that wasn´t bad enough, the gate seemed to malfacture. It was slowly closing and if they were inside the gate when it closed...

"Everybody back inside!" Chris didn´t understand himself why he said that. If the gate crushed them no one would survive. But somehow, it felt like a small protection. All of his friends looked scared now. Donnie looked also very focused. He would NOT let himself and the others getting killed. Now they were halfway past the gate. The sides looked like jaws closing, and they came closer. Just when they passed them they snapped behind the boat. A muted thud was heard indicating the monster hitting the gate. They all fell silent, except for Donnie´s sigh of relief. Richard smiled a little at him, approval clear in his eyes.

Carlos finally broke the silence. "Well it looks like our friend got stuck there!" They all broke into a collective laugh. Once again they had been close to death but evading it at the last minute.

Rebecca smiled back at him. "So we finally took down Umbrella, huh?"

Barry placed a big hand on her shoulder. "If the evidence is strong enough. But I think it is."

"Not to mention they have no HQ anymore!" said Leon with a laugh. Ada just smiled at him. 

Steve remembered his parents who had been murdered by Umbrella. _I hope you´re proud of me now. _He never spoke those words aloud. The wounds felt still fresh. Claire leaned on his shoulder, making him feel warm.

"Yeah…" She sounded sleepy, it sounded like she was going to sleep right there. Not that Steve minded. Claire was the one in his life now.

Jill looked at the two, they sat just like her and Chris. Claire with her head on Steve´s shoulder and Jill had her head on Chris´s shoulder. She closed her eyes and snuggled up more to Chris. He put his arm around her, whispering something into her hair. Right now she was too tired to care what it was but later she would ask him._We did it. Umbrella went down. Now I can go on with my life._

__

So there! They finally put Umbrella, and Wesker, where it belongs! And got out alive too! Except for poor Emily, not to mention Dan and his men but they will always be remembered. When it comes to Wesker, he was killed by Steve which may sound strange to some. I know that Chris is supposed to be Wesker´s nemesis, but Steve is someone who may become a strong enemy of Wesker now that he´s in captivity and it wouldn´t be a surprise if Wesker tried to control him . Not to mention that he may get powers similar to Wesker, and if Wesker threatened Claire… It was an idea I got which sounded interesting. Personally I like Steve and I wanted him to have an important role in this story, even though it wasn´t until the end that he came into the picture.

Next will be an epilogue, I´ll try to do it as fast as I can. Until next time… *** smile ***


	11. Epilogue

To continue the fight

By: Bloodlover

__

Disclaimer: All the characters belong to Capcom, except for the ones I made up inspired by the game. Please don´t use them without permission.

A/N: Here is the epilogue! Now the story is complete, finally. It took me quite awhile but now it´s the end. Hope you liked it and thank you for the feedback. It meant a lot.

Epilogue

**__**

February 12 1999, U.B.C.S base, U.S.A

Claire stumbled down the corridor, yawning. She was NOT a morning person. She was on her way to the kitchen to get some breakfast. There was no guarantee that she´d feel better but it was worth a try. She was just glad that they all made it out alive. _No not ALL of us… Emily and Dan… You would be proud, we took down Umbrella and they will pay for their crimes but I wish you could be with us now._

She walked past the door to Chris´s room and stopped, staring suspiously at it. A thought had just crossed her mind. _Didn´t Jill follow Chris last night..?_ Claire´s eyes narrowed as always when she became suspious._ Could this mean…! Why didn´t I notice this yesterday?_ The later was easy she had just wanted to get some sleep, Steve had to carry her to her room. The first one however… Truth to be told she didn´t want to know but she had always been curious. Her thoughts were interrupted by a tapping on her shoulder.

"Didn´t you know it´s not nice to eavesdrop?" It was Leon. Of course.

"I wasn´t eavesdropping!"

He crossed his arms. "If you didn´t then you were about to."

"It isn´t the same!" Claire started to get really annoyed with Leon. Why did he had to be so bossy?! He was acting like he was her big brother or something like that. Like having ONE big brother wasn´t bad enough. _And speaking of Chris…_

"Anyway, I wonder if Chris is awake?"

"What you REALLY wonder is `what happened between my brother and Jill last night?´. They are grown ups Claire."

"Like you would know."

"Ouch! That hurt." They both laughed, to an outsider this might have looked more serious than it was but that was Leon and Claire´s style. Even though Claire could get VERY annoyed with him sometimes. After being through the hell with Umbrella they needed to laugh.

"No, seriously Claire they are probably both asleep now. We should let them come out themselves instead of barging on the door. Why don´t we go get some breakfast?"

Claire nodded. "Right on. Steve is probably in the kitchen by now. He waked up and was REALLY hungry."

"I certainly don´t blame him. After going up against that freak Wesker… A miracle he survived."

"He survived thanks to those special abilities." Suddenly she stopped, clearly alarmed. "Leon… Just thought of something, will Steve continue to be okay? I mean who knows what side effects could be, after all those expriments they did on him."

"I talked with Rebecca earlier. She said that she didn´t think Steve was in any danger, she took some tests just to be sure. Maybe you could ask her? But I don´t think you need to worry Claire."

"I guess you´re right. Thanks Leon." They started to walk again. Claire knew Steve didn´t seemed sick at all, she knew from her experience earlier. They hadn´t done "it" yet but they had been doing some… groping. She blushed for a moment but quickly hid it. If Leon saw it he would tease her for it the next 100 years.

"What about Ada?"

"She is still out like a light. I decided to bring breakfast with me to our room."

Claire saw her chance to get her payback. "Aww… isn´t that cute? Hope you won´t dirty the sheets…"

Leon laughed as he shook his head. "God, I deserved that didn´t I."

"You bet."

He opened the door to the kitchen and they saw Steve at the fridge. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at them.

"Claire, Leon! You´re awake!" Claire went over to him.

"Yes, have you prepared anything?"

"Yes, coffee for all of us. The others can take a cup if they want to when they get up."

"Wow! You seem to think of everything."

"Thanks Claire." He closed the fridge and hugged her. Leon took his place at the freezer, deep in thought. _Wonder what Ada likes… I can take some coffee, a sandwish maybe even some cake? We should celebrate. Yes that´s sounds good._ He opened the freezer again and took what he needed. Then he poured up two cups of coffee to himself and Ada and left the room.

"I´ll go back to my room now. Make sure you don´t mess up the kitchen too much!"

That, of course, earned him some comebacks from Steve and Claire.

***************************

Chris smiled, still a bit tired, when he heard his sister and Leon quarrel. _Yeah I bet you did the same as her, Leon. Eavesdropping, EVERYONE loves that even those who deny it._ He looked down at Jill´s sleeping form. Her breath came slow but regular, sometimes she snored. Not that Chris minded, he thought she looked cute when she did that. He didn´t want to wake her up but he guessed that the debriefing meeting would start as soon as possible and they shouldn´t keep the others waiting. Gently, he shook her. 

"Wakey, wakey sleepyhead."

Jill groaned and opened her eyes. "Mmm… Couldn´t you have waited a little more longer?"

"Jill according to the clock it´s 10 already. The meeting…"

She began to sit up. "Yeah, yeah. We shouldn´t keep the others waiting. Come on let´s go!"

Chris watched after his girlfriend as she ran to the bathroom. _God how does she do that? She still keep surprising me, even after this time._ He began to sit up to gather his clothes. He winced a little. Even though Becky had healed their wounds last night, his scars still hurt a bit. Yet he knew how lucky they had been to survive. Those who HAD survived. He remembered Emily and Dan, not to mention all those soldiers that he never got the chance to get to know. _You will be remembered, guys. I promise._

*******************************

"Ada?" Leon shut the door behind him as careful as possible. He wanted to wake her up slowly, since he knew that waking too fast was terrible.

Ada begun to move under her blanket. "Leon? Is that you?"

He sat down beside her, being careful with the food. "Yes. I brought you some breakfast."

She began to sit up. "Breakfast on the bedside? Leon, you´re such a sweetie…"

"Anything for you."

The s smile on her face grew bigger. "That´s one of the things I love with you Leon. Few men seems to be gentlemen those days…"

After the had eaten and got dressed, they went to the briefing room. All of them was there, including Ark and Sherry. The little girl had been hugging Claire, but when Leon showed up he got a hug too.

"Leon!" Sherry hadn´t seen Leon for a long time, and even though she had been told that he was alright she felt better when she saw him with her own eyes. After she released him it was Ark´s turn to give him a hug.

"Good to see you´re okay Leon."

"I thought that was MY line. I heard what happened to you Ark. I´m sorry for not being there to prevent it…"

"I don´t think you could have done so much Leon. STAR pulled me aside and then…" He hung his head remembering the whole thing. "I still can´t believe it. Then again he saved mine and Sherry´s life, so I forgive him." Ark lifted his head and greeted Ada. "I´ve heard a lot of you too Ada. If it´s okay to call you by that name…"

"It´s okay. I thought I could leave `Ada´ behind but this time things didn´t go according to plan." She glanced up to Leon and stroke his cheek. "Which I´m so glad for."

Ark turned to Steve. "We all heard about what you did. People really look to you as a hero now." Steve blushed at that.

"Thanks. I just wished I had gone up against him earlier."

"Hey, better late than never. It all turned out well right? Maybe you would like to join our rank of agents…"

Before Steve could answer, Claire shook her head. "First of all Steve needs a vacation. I think Hawaii is still nice this time of the year?" she winked at Steve. Before that nut case Alfred Ashford had taken over their plane when they left Rockfort, she and Steve had talked about going to Hawaii. She remembered it all so well… the feeling that they had escaped, that they had had the chance to go anywhere. Of course she had been thinking about Chris and she still wanted to find him. But there were a lot of times when she thought she and Steve would die on that freaky island, so when they finally got out she just wanted to feel joy. But then they arrived at Antarctica and then Alexia got to them… Until now she had thought Steve to be dead, it was time to make up for the lost time.

Claire´s thoughts were interrupted by Chris, who had just came into the room with Jill. "No way I let her go alone to Hawaii!"

She raised an eyebrow. "Chris… I´m 19 years old. I think I can go on vacation without you watching so I won´t trip on my own feet."

Chris ignored her response as well as the snicker that followed it. "Claire…"

"Don´t `Claire´ me Chris! Me and Steve WILL go to Hawaii!"

"You don´t have any money." Chris crossed his arms in front of his chest in trimph. Before Claire could admit defeat, Leon saved her.

"I have some money on my account. I´ll pay for her and Steve."

"Thanks Leon!" said Claire with a gleeful smile at her brother. Chris sighed in defeat causing her smile to get even more wider and gleeful.

"You´re welcome. So Sherry how would you like your room to be?"

"Oh… I want…"

Before Sherry could give Leon her wishlist Claire interrupted. 

"Wait a minute Leon! What are you talking about?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh, sorry Claire. I should have told you earlier. Ada and I will adopt Sherry."

"How could you forget to tell me that?!"

"It slipped my mind. Don´t get so upset Claire, you two can still see each other."

She was about to go into another tirade but then stopped. _What´s the matter, really? He HAS taken good care of Sherry. Even though she was put into danger. On the other hand it wasn´t really Leon´s fault, he did his best to take care of her after I left. I know Leon is a nice guy and Sherry likes him and Ada. I know they´ll take good care of her._

"Good to hear Leon. Sorry for exploding."

"I understand Claire. After all you are like a mother to Sherry. Or maybe an older sister."

Ark laughed. "He´s right. And Sherry, after this meeting is over maybe you would like to meet Lott and Lily. They are really nice kids I´m sure you will get along great." Sherry smiled at him. She hadn´t had any contact with other children during her stay at the base. She was happy to finally get out of there and live with Leon and Ada. And Claire would come and visit them too. Sherry hadn´t felt this good for a long time.

Chris still hadn´t given up. "I still think that going to Hawaii alone…" A glare from Jill silenced him. 

"Chris, can´t you just trust her? She´ll be with Steve and he seems to be a good guy." He hung his head in defeat. "Let´s get seated the meeting is about to start."

They all sat down round the table. The moment after, the door opened and the boss for the goverment´s secret agency arrived. He nodded quickly to Leon, Ada and Ark, and smiled to Sherry before he sat down at the table.

"I´m pleased to finally meet you all. For those who don´t know me, I´m the boss for the goverment intelligence agency. You can call me Holder. First of all I would like to congratulate you to your victory. It wasn´t easy but you won, saving countless lives in the process. Sadly you lost a lot of fellow soldiers and friends. Before starting the debriefing, I suggest we remember them."

The room fell silent as they all bowed their heads, thinking of those who had died. Dan, Emily… Even STAR who had redeemed himself when he had saved Ark and Sherry. They also thought about the ones who died before that; the S.T.A.R.S, the people in Raccoon City and the U.B.C.S. Finally, he lifted his head.

"Let´s begin then. Chris Redfield, you may start."

Chris started to go through how they had arrived, the monsters they encountered, the discover of Dan´s and his men´s bodies, the return of Wesker and Steve´s rescue, the traitor Gilbert Masters who was ultimely killed, the death of Wesker and Nicholai and finally how they got the evidence against Umbrella and their escape. When he was done, Holder nodded, clearly pleased. 

"My men has gone through the evidence and they are positive that it will bring down Umbrella. I also have to say that I´m impressed that you, mr Burnside managed to take down Albert Wesker. The man was a total renegade and even though I´m been told that he was working with another company, he still clearly had some connection to Umbrella. He was really a dangerous man. Therefore, I´m offering you to become one of our agents. You don´t have to answer right away, of course. You clearly need a vacation. In fact all of you do. Therefore you, mr Thompson, mr Kennedy and ms… Wong?" he gave Ada a look and she nodded. "...will have a two months vacation. After that, you´ll be back to report. Mr Burnside you may give your answer at that time too."

Holder´s face expression turned a bit worried. "I don´t want to end this debriefing sounding grim, after all you won a big victory. But I have to warn you that even if we won this time and Umbrella went down, there is no guarantee that some other company won´t continue Umbrella´s work. Therefore I´m going to have a special team that will be checking those companies." He smiled a little. "But that will be in the future. Those companies will surely keep a low profile in the near future. Hopefully they have learned their lesson. I just wanted to tell you of this _possiblity_. And the next assignment." He turned to Chris. "Mr Redfield. I heared from the S.T.A.R.S that you will most likely be promoted to Captain. I hope I can count on you and your friends in the future."

Chris nodded. "Thank you sir. And you can count on us."

"Good to hear that. With that I declare the debriefing concluded." Holder got up and left the room.

The rest of them began to get up. They congratulated each other to the promotions and discussed what they would do during their two months vacation. Carlos went over to Claire.

"Well, good that it all went so well. Even though I didn´t get my revenge on Nicholai…"

She punched his arm lightly. "Come on! He got what he deserved, it doesn´t matter WHO got to do it."

"You´re right. Anyway, good to hear about you boyfriend´s promotion. And that Leon will pay for your vacation too." Carlos gave her his most mischievous smile.

"Yeah, isn´t he the nicest. Though I´m sure that he, Ada and Sherry will most likely take a vacation too. What about you Carlos?"

"Oh I´m not really sure. I´m thinking of asking Becky to go on vacation with me."

"Ah… So she will be your next victim?"

"No. I just want to make her feel good. That girl sure has gone through a lot."

"We all have." They looked over to where Jill and Chris stood. Carlos looked thoughtful."Wonder what THEY will do?"

"Hmm… My brother is REALLY passionate about his work. Then again, he needs some time to relax and spend some time with Jill. They hadn´t seen each other for months until now."

"You´re right."

Claire looked like she was going to tell him something but hesitated. "Claire. Do you have something on your mind?"

"Um, yes. How do you feel about my brother and Jill?"

"I´m happy for their sake of course! Jill is a very good friend of mine."

"So no hard feelings?"

Carlos rolled his eyes. "No! Why should I?" He blinked and Claire understood._He must have had some sort of feelings for Jill, but he is still happy for her and Chris. Carlos is a great man and friend, no doubt about it._

Steve had came up to them. "Hey Claire! Shouldn´t we start planning our vacation?"

"Sure." She looked over to where Rebecca was standing with Leon and Ada. "Just wanted to talk to Becky…" She walked over to her friends, feeling a bit worried. Even though Leon had thought that Steve would be okay, she still needed to hear it from their medic. "Rebecca. I just wondered…"

"If the tests on Steve shows he´s okay? I can tell you Claire, he seems fine. Just take good care of him."

Claire let out a deep breath. "Thank you. We´ll be off to plan our vacation but we´ll meet up later, right?"

"Of course!" They hugged. "Take good care of yourself, Becky."

"You and Steve too Claire."

Leon gave her a tight hug. "Hope you´ll have fun Claire!"

"You too Leon. And thank you once again, this really meant a lot to me. Watch over him Ada."

"I will. See you again Claire." She hugged the younger woman fondly. Even though they didn´t knew each other that well, Ada had already developed an affection for Claire. The girl was strong and passionate. _I wish I could have been that carefree when I was her age. Instead… No I can´t dwell on my past. I have to go forward._

Claire and Steve said their goodbyes to the rest, and getting strong hugs from Sherry and Chris. Then they walked to their room, holding hands.

Chris watched after them as the door closed. "They are really happy."

Jill nodded. "Yes they are. Just trust them Chris."

He smiled down on her. "I´ll try. Instead I´ll think about where we will go on vacation. Have any ideas?"

She hugged him tightly. "Someplace nice and quiet…"

"Maybe Hawaii?"

"Is it because Claire and Steve?"

"No! I trust them! It just sounds like a good place to rest on."

"We´ll see." Jill detached herself from Chris. "But first I have to call my parents."

Chris followed her as they said their goodbyes to their team mates. Barry and Rebecca told them to have a good time, Carlos wished them luck, Leon and Ada joked about joining them later and Donnie asked if he could watch. Before he could regret his words he told them he was just joking. Leon said something about "there are kids present" but Sherry didn´t seem to be so bothered about it, she just gave them a hug Richard shook their hands and wished them a good time.

When they got out, they started down the corridor to the room where Jill had contacted her parents before they moved into action. 

"Didn´t you call them last night." Wondered Chris.

She glanced up at him. "I was out like a light, remember? Ark said that he got in touch with them but I want to speak with them myself. I missed them so much."

He put his arm around her shoulders. "Jill, I got a great idea. Before we go to Hawaii or whatever, why don´t we pay a visit to your parents? I´m sure they would like to see you in person."

She laughed. "Great idea! And then you can meet them too."

Chris suddenly looked concerned. "What should I wear? A tuxedo?"

"Let´s talk about that later."

"Okay."

They stopped at the door. When Jill opened it Chris stopped her.

"Jill?"

"Yes?"

"I´m so glad we´re here. Our friends. And most of all you." 

"Same here Chris, same here." She pulled him down for a kiss. When they broke it she continued. "Whatever the future holds, we´ll be together."

THE END

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The end at last! Our heroes finally got their well deserved vacation. Chris might have seemed a little suspiuos about Steve and Claire but he´s her older brother, he just want her best. Chris and Jill will get some peace and quiet too. After their battle with Wesker, Umbrella and monsters… Sherry is going to be happy with Leon and Ada, even though she´ll always remember her parents of course.

This was the ending and I thank you for the feedback you have given me. I´ll write more stories later. Until next time, have a good time! 

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